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1 



ALEXANDER POPE. 



The Silver Series of English Classics 

> ' -— — — 

POPE'S 
ESSAY ON MAN 

AND 

ESSAY ON CRITICISM 

EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 

BY 

JOSEPH B. SEABUEY 




SILVER, BURDETT x\ND COMPANY 
New York BOSTON Chicago 



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Copyright, 1900, 
By silver, BURDETT AND COMPANY. 



PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT. 

The Silver Series of English Classics is designed to furnish 
editions of many of the standard classics in English and American 
literature, in the best possible form for reading and stud}'. While 
planned to meet the requirements for entrance examinations to 
college, as formulated by the Commission of American Colleges, 
it serves a no less important purpose in providing valuable and 
attractive reading for the use of the higher grades of public and 
private schools. 

It is now generally recognized that to familiarize students with 
the masterpieces of literature is the best means of developing true 
literary taste, and of establishing a love of good reading which 
will be a permanent dehght. The habit of cultured original ex- 
pression is also established through the influence of such study. 

To these ends, carefully edited and annotated editions of the 
Classics, which shall direct pupils in making intelligent and 
appreciative study of each work as a whole, and, specifically, of 
its individual features, are essential in the classroom. 

The Silver Series notably meets this need, through the editing 
of its volumes by scholars of high literary ability and educational 
experience. It unfolds the treasures of hterary art, and shows 
the power and beauty of our language in the various forms of 
English composition,— as the 'oration, the essay, the argument, 
the biography, the poem, etc. 

Thus, the first volume contains Webster's oration at the laying 
of the corner stone of Bunker Hill monument ; and, after a brief 
sketch of the orator's Ufe, the oration is defined, —the speech 
itself furnishing a practical example of what a masterpiece in 
oratory should be. 

Next follows the essay, as exempUfied by Macaulay's " Essay 
on Milton." The story of the life of the great essayist creates an 
interest in his work, and the student, before he proceeds to study 
the essay, is shown in the Introduction the difference between the 
oratorical and the essay istic style. 

3 



4 PUBLISHERS ANNOUNCEMENT. 

After this, Burke's "Speech on Concihation " is treated in a 
similar manner, the essential principles of forensic authorship 
being set forth. 

Again, De Quincey's " Flight of a Tartar Tribe" — a conspicu- 
ous example of pure narixition — exhibits the character and qual- 
ity of this department of literary composition. 

Southey's " Life of Nelson " is presented in the same personal 
and critical manner, placing before the student the essential char- 
acteristics of the biographical style. 

The series continues with specimens of such works as : " The 
Rime of the Ancient Mariner," by Coleridge; the "Essay on 
Burns," by Carlyle; the " Sir Roger de Coverley Papers," by Ad- 
dison ; Milton's "Paradise Lost," Books I. and II. ; Pope's " Iliad," 
Books L, VL, XXII. , and XXIV. ; Dry den's "Palamon and Ar- 
cite " ; Shakespeare's " Merchant of Venice " ; Spenser's " Faerie 
Queene"; Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel"; Shelley's "Pro- 
metheus," and other works of equally eminent writers, covering 
a large and diversfied area of literary exposition. 

The beginner, as well as the somewhat advanced scholar, will 
find in this series ample instruction and guidance for his own 
study, without being perplexed by abstruse or doubtful problems. 

With the same thoughtfulness for the student's progress, the 
appended Notes provide considerable information outright ; but 
they are also designed to stimulate the student in making re- 
searches for himself, as well as in applying, under the direction 
of the teacher, the principles laid down in the critical examina- 
tion of the separate divisions. 

A portrait, either of the author or of the personage about whom 
he writes, will form an attractive feature of each volume. The 
text is from approved editions, keeping as far as possible the 
original form ; and the contents offer, at a very reasonable price, 
the latest results of critical instruction in the art of literary ex- 
pression. 

The teacher will appreciate the fact that enough, and not too 
much, assistance is rendered the student, leaving the instructor 
ample room for applying and extending the principles and sug- 
gestions which have been presented. 



INTEODUCTION. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 

A i^iTTLE man with a large brain, a frail man with a 
sinewy brain, a misshapen man with a well-proportioned 
brain, Alexander Pope for fifty-six years lived a life out of 
poise with itself. From beginning to end it was body 
versus mind. From the day of his birth, which occurred 
in London May 21, 1688, Pope struggled with relentless 
physical foes, making his earthly career " a long disease." 
It is a phenomenon in the annals of literature that a man 
under such an exhausting inheritance of ill-health should 
have achieved so great fame. 

Like many other persons of intellectual acuteness in 
deformed bodies. Pope had a singularly expressive coun- 
tenance and a luminous eye. Nature had endowed him 
with a melodious voice, which gave rise to the title he 
bore, " The Little Nightingale." 

In early life he showed remarkable gentleness of dispo- 
sition. In a vein of pathetic candor Dr. Samuel Johnson 
said of him : " The weakness of his body continued 
through life, but the mildness of his mind perhaps ended 
with his childhood." It is true that jealousy and rancor, 
that childish spite and caustic revenge, are far too appar- 
ent in his poems and correspondence, but the qualities of 
philanthropy and filial devotion are not wanting in the 
relationships of his life. " There is nothing easier," says 
Beuve, "than to make a caricature of Pope." The man 

5 



6 ALEXANDER POPE. 

who encased himself in a stiff canvas jacket to sii})port his 
distorted l)ody, who wore three pairs of stockings, drawn 
on one over the other to cover his slender legs, who sat in 
a high chair at table, the man who was dependent on the 
care of women, who was " crafty and malignant," puerile 
and peevish, this man was always the jest of cynic and of 
censor. His literary vanity was conspicuous. Although 
a genuine admirer of the great masters of the art of ex- 
pression, he had an overpowering estimate of his own 
genius. 

Pope's parents were of " gentle blood." His father 
was a linen-draper. He accumulated a fortune and re- 
tired from business. The mother of Pope was Edith 
Turner, who like her husband was a Roman Catholic and 
brought up her son in that faith. But the poet never de- 
veloped very positive religious opinions. The father 
died when the son was twenty-nine years of age, and 
the mother when he was forty-five. Pope's respect for 
his mother was justly due to her strong character. He 
cherished her love, and sought her pleasure. On a monu- 
ment erected to her memory the son recorded his venera- 
tion for " one of the best of mothers and most loving 
of women." In contemplating Pope's devotion to his 
mother. Dr. Johnson wrote : " Life has among its sooth- 
ing and quiet comforts few things better to give than 
such a son." 

Pope's precocity is proverbial. At the age of eight 
he began Latin and Greek under a Romish priest and 
friend of the family, Taverner. He read Ogilby's Jlonier 
and Sandys' Ovid. He made metrical translations of 
these classical authors. At twelve he wrote a play 
founded on the Iliad. English poetry early filled him 
with enthusiasm. Chaucer and Spenser were his absorb- 
ing delight. But no English writer held the high place 
in his estimation that Drvden held. He discovered " the 



INTKODUCTION. 7 

art and mystery " of bis style. He made him his model. 
One of the earliest productions of his pen is the Ode to 
Solitude, written at Binfield, whither his father had 
moved with his family in 1700 to escape the feverish 
ecclesiastical unrest of the times. Pope lived at Binfield 
from the time he was twelve till he was twenty-eight. It 
was the period of literary expansio7i. 

The first poems to establish the reputation of our author 
were the Pastorals, published in 1709. This work was 
written when the poet was sixteen j^ears of age, but not 
given to the public until he was twenty-one. Following 
this (1711) was the Kssay 07i Criticism. The publication 
of this incisive poem by one so young gave Pope the posi- 
tion of the foremost poet of his age. The mock-heroic 
poem, The Rape of the Lock, belongs to his twenty-fourth 
year, an ideal creation of pure fancy, founded on the fact 
mentioned to him by a friend that Lord Petre, a fashion- 
able courtier at the court of Queen Anne, plucked a lock 
of hair from the head of a beautiful young maid of honor, 
Arabella Fermor. This incident Pope treats with most 
bewitching pleasantry, showing how hard it is to find 
the element of the heroic in polite society. Lowell says 
this poem is sufficient to immortalize its author, and adds, 
" in it the natural genius of Pope found fuller and freer 
expression than in any other of his poems." 

Although Pope was in no sense a poet of nature, his 
Windsor Forest (the name of the region in which he 
lived) shows him not unappreciative of nature's voice. 
The poem abounds in the choicest specimens of versifica- 
tion and is an example of the purest diction. Among the 
poems written at Binfield were the Ode on St. Vecilid's Day 
and the Temple of Fame. Here he began a very laborious 
literary effort — covering twelve years — his translation of 
the Iliad. The first book a])peared in 1715, the entire 
translation was completed in 1720. It placed in the hands 



8 ALEXANDER POPE. 

of the poet £5000 ; the publication of the Odyssey £3000 
additional, — a literary competency. 

In 1716 Pope moved to Chiswick. The two years 
spent there are chiefly eventful because of the death of 
his father and the publication of the Epistle of Eloisa to 
Ahelard. 

In the year 1718 Pope moved with his mother to Twick- 
enham, picturesquely situated on the banks of the Thames. 
Here, in a beautiful villa, he passed the remainder of his 
life, in ease but not in affluence. He devoted much time 
to horticulture and made a subterranean grotto, which he 
furnished with looking-glasses. He gathered about him 
the literary lights of the day — Swift, Addison, Prior, 
Gay, Bolingbroke, Arbuthnot. Statesmen, men of art 
and science, were frequently his guests. The patronage of 
the great and famous served to feed that passionate fond- 
ness for being in the public eye which was natural to Pope. 
His brilliant successes gave a tone of boastfulness and 
loftiness to the i3oet, and led him to look with unbecoming 
disdain upon the writers of lesser name : " the beggarly 
scribblers in the pay of publishers." Pope brought upon 
himself the bitter envy and revenge of his cotemporaries. 
As an answer to his calumniators he wrote what is con- 
sidered the most scathing piece of satire ever published. 
The Ihiiiciad. " In it he flays, and boils, and roasts, 
and dismembers the miserable scribblers he attacks." In 
this satirical invective Pope's judgment forsook him, per- 
mitting the coarser elements of his nature to rule the 
finer. He descends to the most ribald personalities. 
Names otherwise lost to fame are rescued from their ob- 
scurity by Pope's fierce satire. 

The poet's literary friendships were of a somewhat pre- 
carious sort. If, as Taine says, " he wished to be ad- 
mired, and nothing more," when admiration ceased 
friendship was severed. To his jealousy as a writer may 



INTKODUCTION. 9 

be traced his unhappy squabbles with Addison, Swift, and 
Lord Hervey. His treatment of Bolingbroke was singu- 
larly ungrateful, but it did not estrange that ardent 
admirer. When Pope was thirty-seven, by a painful 
accident he lost the use of two fingers. Voltaire, being in 
England at the time, wrote him an appreciative letter of 
sympathy. 

Among the poems of Pope's later life the supreme place 
must be given to the JEssay on Man^ the study of which 
has engaged the attention of thinking men from his day 
to ours. The Epistle on Taste, the Epistle to ArbiUJuiot, 
the Correspondence, the Imitations of Horace, belong to 
the later period of his industrious life. 

Pope took no active interest in politics. He treated the 
subject flippantly. In his own words : " In my politics, I 
think no further than how to prefer the peace of my life 
in any government under which I live, nor in my religion 
than to preserve the peace of my conscience in any church 
with which I communicate." 

Pope died at Twickenham, May 30, 1744, and was buried 
in the churchyard of that place. He was laid to rest near 
the mother whom he so heartily venerated, and whose 
death antedated his own by a decade. 

CRITICAL. 

"The foremost of our classical poets." "The great 
moral poet of all time." "The poet of a thousand years." 
"Himself a literature." Such are some of the encomiums 
which the ardent admirers of Alexander Pope have heaped 
upon him. That he was the foremost poet of his day no 
one seriously doubts ; that he had poetic defects every one 
admits. And yet no poet was ever so highly lauded, so 
petted, so coddled by a devoted public as he. The pub- 
lication of The Rape of the Lock brought about him 



10 ALEXANDER POPE. 

a whirlwind of enthusiasm. His Pastorals, his Temple of 
Fame, his Epistle of Eloisa to Ahelard, as they came from 
the press from time to time, served to solidify the fibre of 
his reputation. 

No great poet was ever held up as a target for the 
arrows of envy and hatred as was Pope. Whatever may 
have been the calibre of his poetic genius, his personality 
was irritative. His dwarfish stature, his splenetic ill-will, 
his proverbial parsimony, his abnormal conceit, his queru- 
lous suspicion, kept him in perpetual contempt before the 
public. In Taine's racy words : " He had all the appetite 
and whims of an old child, an old invalid, an old author, 
an old bachelor." 

Pope's literary genius has surmounted all obstacles and 
his reputation has defied all enemies. The cautious, the 
wise, the discreet judgment of his day and ours places 
him among the great writers of English literature. But 
admiration should be impartial. Johnson admired him 
with discrimination and Warton with self-restraint. So 
do men of our time. Lowell says : " It will hardly be 
questioned that the man who writes what is still piquant 
and rememberable, a century and a quarter after his death, 
was a man of genius." Again he says : " His more am- 
bitious work may be defined as careless thinking carefully 
versified." 

It is the wholesome judgment of our day that every 
writer must be studied amid his surroundings. His age 
interprets him quite as much as he interprets his age. It 
is true of Pope. Making all due allowance for the 
physical and mental limitations with which he was born, 
and under which he struggled, his environment was de- 
fective. It was the age of duplicity at court, the age 
of widespread policy, intrigue and cunning. The states- 
men of the day made no scruj)le of slanderiug and 
maligning their enemies, of clim])ing up the ladder of 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

fame by pulling other men down. Social morals were at 
a low ebb. Literature felt the general decadence of a 
manful standard of life. A man of Pope's fragile nature 
felt the atmosphere in which he lived : he reflected its 
spirit. His conspicuous satirical gift found a wide field in 
the form of poetry which especially delighted him. The 
biting, withering repartee which fills the pages of The 
Dimciad is of the nature of revenge more than of satire. 
And yet his revenge was not of the morose, malicious 
order. It was the pastime of his genius, the practice of 
his imagination, to set forth in stinging personalities the 
defects of men, particularly those who had offended him 
by their attacks upon his poetry. " Airy and graceful in 
his malice," he may have been, but it must be regarded as 
a serious defect in his writings that his abnormally sensi- 
tive and vindictive nature found so fertile a field of ex- 
pression in the works that have made him famous. 

It remains for us to consider what seem to the writer 
the salient qualities of Pope's style. 

(1) Accuracy. Pope himself says Mr. Walsh told him 
there was one way left of excelling. " We had several 
great poets, but we never had one great poet that was 
correct, and he advised me to make that my study and 
aim." Pope followed this advice. He made precision 
his ideal. He sought to eliminate inaccuracies and re- 
move redundancies. He aimed at exactness in the thought 
to be expressed and in the form that thought should take. 
The charm of his illuminating metaphors lies in their per- 
fect adaptation to the idea to be illustrated. Before any- 
thing from his pen appeared in print he spent eight or 
nine years in painstaking investigation, reading, study- 
ing : " poetry his only business," and " idleness his only 
pleasure." In a letter to Walsh he writes, "It seems 
not so much the perfection of sense to say things that 
have never been said before, as to express those best 



12 ALEXANDER POPE. 

that liave been said oftenest." Pope's observation of 
men and manners was technical and searching. His scru- 
tiny of personal foibles was analytic, and yet his analysis 
was not always logical. The reader of Pope cannot fail to 
be struck with the author's consummate art in making 
every thought stand out a complete whole. 

(2) Floiish. This industrious author kept every poem 
two years before it was published. He subjected it to 
a minute process of examination. He recast it, re-phrased 
it, polished it, burnished it. He pursued this refining art 
until every sentence, line, word, syllable was correctly 
framed, nicely adjusted, effectively inserted. The balance 
of the metre was faultless ; stately epigrams abound on 
every page. 

(3) Condensation. It is acknowledged by Pope's se- 
verest critics that he was a master of concise statement. 
In his own words : " Nothing is more certain than that 
much of the force, as well as the grace of arguments or 
instructions, depends on their conciseness." He was math- 
ematical in reducing every expression to its lowest terms, 
finding the prime factors in every literary problem. As a 
result of this passion for condensation, it is impossible to 
find a line, a word too many. Pope is the English Taci- 
tus. In terseness of phraseology he stands without a 
peer. He once remarked that one of the great conditions 
of writing well is " to know thoroughly what one writes 
about." After gaining a lucid conception of the thought 
to be expressed, he had it in his power to condense it and 
compress it into the form where it would convey the most 
perfect image to the mind in the least possible number of 
words. 

(4) Rhythm. The liquid beauty of Pope's lines im- 
presses every reader. There is no hiatus ; every period 
is exquisitely rounded. It was Dr. Johnson who said, 
" A thousand years may elapse before there shall appear 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

another man with a power of versification equal to that 
of Pope." In poetic symmetry he was peerless. " I lisped 
in numbers, for the numbers came." Always studious, al- 
ways taking down data from conversation or reading, he 
was on the alert at all times to increase the fund of his 
poetic material. This he wove into his poems with a 
grace of metrical movement that surprises and charms 
the reader. 

Ruskin considers Pope one of the two " masters of the 
absolute art of language." The other is Vergil. Pope is 
more incisive, more comprehensive than Vergil. He has 
a wit that is cutting, at times corrosive. Lacking in the 
force and majesty that make the pages of Dryden so 
commanding to the attention and admiration of all. Pope 
abounds in grace of form and reach of execution. He 
covers in his more serious poems " every law of art, of 
criticism, of economy, of policy, and finally of benevo- 
lence." Who has realized more nearly than he the familiar 
lines of Shefiield, Duke of Buckinghamshire : 

" Of all those arts in which the wise excel, 
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well " ! 



Tlie text used in this edition is that of Warburton, the friend to 
whom Pope entrusted, afeiv years before his death, the congenial 
task of arranging and editing his poetical works. This authentic 
edition has become the popidar one, and it has been adopted, ivith 
some minor changes in spelling, punctuation, and capitalizing, 
for the present volume of English Classics. 



14 ALEXANDER POPE. 

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 

1688. (May 21) Birth of Pope in London. 

1700. Pope takes up his residence with his father at Binfield. 

1704. Intimacy with Sir William Trumball begins, 

1705. Forms intimate acquaintance with Walsh. 
1709. Pastorals pubUshed. 

1711. Essay on Criticism.. Introduced to Gay. 

1712. Introduced to Addison. Rape of the Lock. The Messiah. 

1713. (April) Addison's Cato first acted. Prologue to Cato. 
Windsor Forest. Ode on St. Cecilia's Day. 
Subscription for Translation of Iliad opened. 

1714. Death of Queen Anne. Rape of the Loch enlarged. 

Temple of Fame. 

1715. Iliad{Yo\.l), 

1716. (April) Moves to Chiswick. 

1717. Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady. Epistle 

of Eloisa to Ahelaixl. (October) Death of Pope's father. 

1718. Pope settles with his mother at Twickenham. 
1720. Iliad (last volume). 

1723. First return of Bolingbroke. 

1725. Edition of Shakespeare. Pope attacked by Theobald. 
Odyssey, Vols. I-III. Second return of Bolingbroke. 

1726. Letters to Cromwell. Swift at Twickenham. 

1727. (June) Death of George I. Miscellanies, Vols. I and II, 

containing Treatise on the Bathos. 

1728. The Dunciad, Books I-III. 

1730. Grub-street Journal. Continued till 1737. 

1731. Epistle on Taste. The remaining Moral Essays up to 1735. 

1732. Essay on Man, Ep, I. The remaining Epistles up to 1734. 

1733. (June) Death of Pope's mother. 

1735. Epistle to Arbuthnot. Death of Arbuthnot. Pope's 

Correspondence . 

1736. Correspondence (authorized edition). 

1737. Imitations of Horace. 

1738. Epilogue to Satires. 

1740. First meeting with Warburton. • 

1742. The New Dunciad (in four books). 

1743. The Dunciad (with Gibber as hero). 

1744. (May 30) Death of Pope at Twickenham, 



PREFACE TO THE " ESSAY ON MAN." 

The fame of Alexander Pope rests chiefly upon his 
didactic poem, Essay on Man. It is read more widely 
than any other work of its kind in the English language. 
It is the common ground on which men of opposite views 
in literature, religion, and social ethics meet in sympa- 
thetic accord. It is philosophical without being abstruse, 
analytic without being dry, comprehensive without being 
wearisome. 

The poem is the consummation of Pope's purpose to 
write a series of Moral Essays, — " Some pieces on human 
Life and Manners," as the poet himself calls them. In 
this list belong " The Use of Riches," " On the Knowl- 
edge and Character of Men," and " Of the Character of 
Women." 

The Essay on Man is, in the realm of poetry, what 
Butler's Analogy is in the realm of argumentative prose. 
It aimed to put religion upon a rational basis and to 
popularize ethical discussions. The plan of the Essay 
was suggested by the poet's friend. Lord Bolingbroke, who 
furnished most of the arguments and to whom Pope dedi- 
cates the poem. It contains the essence of the thought 
of the times on the subjects discussed. The poem is 
strong in the logical basis of its structure : but in its 
internal development it lacks in logical coherence. Lowell 
calls this poem " a droll medley of inconsistent opinions." 
The wholesome, pungent truths taught in this poem far 
outweigh any minor variations from the accepted tenets 
of ethics. In the words of the author : " If I could flatter 

15 



16 ALEXANDER POPE. 

myself that this Essay has any merit, it is in steering 
betwixt the extremes of doctrines seemingly opposite, in 
passing over terms utterly unintelligible, and in forming 
a temperate yet not inconsistent, and a short yet not im- 
perfect, system of ethics." 

At first glance it seems to the reader surprising that 
the poet should have written upon so occult a subject in 
poetry rather than prose. Let Pope himself explain : 

" I chose verse, and even rhyme, for two reasons. The 
one will appear obvious ; that principles, maxims, or pre- 
cepts so written, both strike the reader more strongly at 
first, and are more easily retained by him afterwards ; the 
other may seem odd, but it is true. I found I could ex- 
press them more shortly this way than in prose itself; 
and nothing is more certain, than that much of the force 
as well as grace of arguments or instructions depends on 
their conciseness." 

The power of this masterly moral epic lay in its 
brilliant versification, its terse epigrams, its luminous meta- 
phors, its striking antitheses, its noble climaxes. Through 
every book the poem breathes a rational optimism, 
which quite eclipses any appearance of pantheism, fatal- 
ism, or pessimism. There is a great moral momentum to 
the poem, which frequently rises to supreme heights of 
rhjrthmic beauty. 

The poem is an integer. It should be read contin- 
uously, thoroughly, slowly, and read to the end. Weigh 
each word : each word has force. Every adjective is a 
picture ; every noun a strong tower; every verb a thing 
of life. 



AN ESSAY ON MAN. 



ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE I. 

OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN, WITH RESPECT TO THE 
UNIVERSE. 

Of man in the abstract. — I. That we can judge only with regard 
to our own system, being ignorant of the relations of systems 
and things, ver. 17, etc. — II. That man is not to be deemed 
imperfect, but a being suited to his place and rank in the crea- 
tion, agreeable to the general order of things, and conformable 
to ends and relations to him unknown, ver. 35, etc. — III. 
That it is partly upon his ignorance of future events, and 
partly upon the hope of a future state, that all his happiness 
in the present depends, ver. 77, etc. -4- IV. The pride of aiming 
at more knowledge, and pretending to more perfection, the 
cause of man's error and misery. The impiety of putting 
himself in the place of God, and judging of the fitness or un- 
fitness, perfection or imperfection, justice or injustice of His 
dispensations, ver. 109, etc. — V. The absurdity of conceiting 
himself the final cause of the creation, or expecting that per- 
fection in the moral world, which is not in the natural, ver. 
131, etc. — VI. The unreasonableness of his complaints against 
Providence, while on the one hand he demands the perfections 
of the angels, and on the other the bodily qualifications of the 
brutes ; tliough, to possess any of the sensitive faculties in a 
higher degree, would render him miserable, ver. 173, etc. — 
VII. That throughout the whole visible world, an universal 
order and gradation in the sensual and mental faculties is ob- 
served, which causes a subordination of creature to creature, 
and of all creatures to man. The gradations of sense, in- 
stinct, thought, reflection, reason : that reason alone counter- 
vails all the other faculties, ver. 207. — VIII. How much 
further this order and subordination of living creatures may 
extend, above and below us ; were any part of which broken, 
not that part only, but the whole connected creation must be 
destroyed, ver. 233. — IX. The extravagance, madness, and 
pride of such a desire, ver. 250. — X. The consequence of all, 
the absolute submission due to Providence, both as to our 
present and future state, ver. 281, etc., to the end. 

17 



18 ALEXANDER POPE. 



EPISTLE I. 



Awake, my St. John ! leave all meaner things 

To low ambition, and the pride of kings. 

Let us, (since life can little more supply 

Than just to look about us and to die), 

Expatiate free o'er all this scene of Man ; 5 

A mighty maze ! but not without a plan ; 

A wild, where weeds and flow'rs promiscuous shoot ; 

Or garden, tempting with forbidden fruit. 

Together let us beat this ample field. 

Try what the open, what the covert yield ; 10 

The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore 

Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar ; 

Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, 

And catch the manners living as they rise ; 

Laugh where we must, be candid where we can ; 15 

But vindicate the ways of God to man. 

I. Say first, of God above or Man below. 
What can we reason but from what we know ? 
Of Man, what see we but his station here. 
From which to reason, or to which refer ? 20 

Through worlds unnumbered though the God be known, 
'T is ours to trace Him only in our own. 
He, who through vast immensity can pierce, 
See worlds on worlds compose one universe, 
Observe how- system into system runs, 25 

What other planets circle other suns. 
What varied being peoples ev'ry star. 
May tell why Heav'n has made us as we are. 
But of this frame the bearings, and the ties. 
The strong connections, nice dependencies, 30 

Gradations just, has thy pervading soul 
Looked through, or can a part contain the whole ? 

Is the great chain, that draws all to agree. 
And drawn supports, upheld by God, or thee ? 



ESSAY ON MAN. 19 

II. Presumptuous man ! the reason wouldst thou find, 35 
Why formed so weak, so little, and so blind ? 
First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess, 
Why formed no weaker, blinder, and no less ? 
Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made 
Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade ? 40 

Or ask of yonder argent fields above, 
W^hy Jove's satellites are less than Jove ? 

Of systems possible, if 't is eonfest 
That Wisdom Infinite must form the best. 
Where all must full or not coherent be, 45 

And all that rises, rise in due degree ; 
Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 't is plain. 
There must be, somewhere, such a rank as Man : 
And all the question (wrangle e'er so long) 
Is only this, if God has placed him wrong ? 50 

Respecting Man, whatever wrong we call. 
May, must be right, as relative to all. 
In human works, though labored on with pain, 
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain ; 
In God's, one single can its end produce ; 55 

Yet serves to second too some other use. 
So man, who here seems principal alone. 
Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown. 
Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal ; 
'T is but a part we see, and not a whole. 60 

When the proud steed shall know why man restrains 
His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains : 
When the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod. 
Is now a victim, and now Egypt's god : 
Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend 65 

Ilis actions', passions', being's uV;e and end ; 
Why doing, sufi^'ring, checked, impelled ; and why 
This hour a slave, the next a deity. 

Then say not Man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault ; 



20 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Say rather, Man's as perfect as he ought : 70 

His knowledge measured to his state and place ; 

His time a moment, and a point his space. 

If to be perfect in a certain sphere, 

What matter, soon or late, or here or there ? 

The blest to-day is as completely so, 75 

As who began a thousand years ago. 

III. Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of fate. 
All but the page prescribed, their present state : 
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know : 
Or who could suffer being here below ? 80 

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day. 
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play ? 
Pleased to the last, he crops the llow'ry food. 
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood. 
Oh, blindness to the future ! kindly giv'n, 85 

That each may fill the circle marked by Heav'n, 
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, 
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall. 
Atoms or systems into ruin hurled, 
And now a bubble burst, and now a world. 90 

Hope humbly then ; with trembling pinions soar ; 
Wait the great teacher Death ; and God adore. 
What future bliss. He gives not thee to know, 
!>ut gives that hope to be thy blessing nf yy. 
^ 'lope springs eternal in the human bre;^ 95 

'-[an never Is, but always To be blest 
'he soul, uneasy and confined from h 
Rests and expatiates in a life to come. 

Lo, the poor Indian ! whose untutored mind 
Sees God in clouds, or hears Him in the wind ; 100 

His soul, proud science never taught to stray 
Far as the solar walk, or milky way ; j 

Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n. 
Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'n ; 



ESSAY ON MAN. 21 

Some safer world in depths of woods embraced, 105 

Some happier island in the wat'ry waste, 

Where slaves once more their native land behold, 

No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. 

To be, contents his natural desire, 

He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire ; 110 

But thinks, admitted to that equal sky. 

His faithful dog shall bear him company. 

ly. Go, wiser thou ! and, in thy scale of sense, 
"Weigh thy opinion against Providence ; 
Call imperfection what thou fanciest such, 115 

Say, here he gives too little, there too much : 
Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust. 
Yet cry, If Man's unhappy, God's unjust ; 
If Man alone engross not Heav'n's high care ; 
Alone made perfect here, immortal there ; 120 

Snatch from His hand the balance and the rod. 
Re-judge His justice, be the god of God. 
In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies ; 
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies. 
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, 125 

Men would be angels, angels would be gods. 
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, 
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel : 
And who but wishes to invert the laws 
Of Order, sins against th' Eternal Cause. 130 

Y. Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine. 
Earth for whose use ? Pride answers, " 'T is for mine : 
For me kind nature wakes her genial pow'r. 
Suckles such herb, and spreads out ev'ry flow'r : 
Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew 135 

The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew ; 
For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings ; 
For me, health gushes from a thousand springs ; 
Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise ; 



22 ALEXANDER POPE. 

My footstool earth, my canop}^ the skies." 140 

But errs not Nature from this gracious end, 

From burning suns when livid deaths descend, 

When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep 

Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep ? 

"No" ('t is replied), " the first Almighty Cause 145 

Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws ; 

The exceptions few ; some change since all began ; 

And what created perfect ? " — Why then Man ? 

If the great end be human happiness, 

Then nature deviates ; and can man do less ? 150 

As much that end a constant course requires 

Of show'rs and sunshine, as of man's desires ; 

As much eternal springs and cloudless skies, 

As men forever temp'rate, calm, and wise. 

If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's design, 155 

Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline ? 

Who knows but He, whose hand the lightning forms, 

Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms ; 

Pours fierce Ambition in a Caesar's mind. 

Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind ? 160 

From pride, from pride, our very reas'ning springs ; 

Account for moral, as for nat'ral things : 

Why charge we Heav'n in those, in these acquit ? 

In both to reason right is to submit. 

Better for us, perhaps, it might appear, 165 

Were there all harmony, all virtue here : 

That never air or ocean felt the wind ; 

That never passion discomposed the mind. 

But all subsists by elemental strife ; 

And passions are the elements of life. 70 

The gen'ral order, since the whole began, 

Is kept in nature, and is kept in man. 

yi. What would this Man ? Now upward will he soar, 

And little less than angel, would be more ; 



ESSAY ON MAN. 23 

Now looking downwards, just as grieved appears 175 

To want the strength of bulls, the fur of bears. 

Made for his use all creatures if he call. 

Say what their use, had he the pow'rs of all ? 

Nature to these, without profusion, kind, 

The proper organs, proper pow'rs assigned ; 180 

Each seeming want compensated of course. 

Here with degrees of swiftness, there of force ; 

All in exact proportion to the state ; 

Nothing to add and nothing to abate. __ 

Each beast, each insect, happy in its own : 185 

Is Heav'n unkind to man, and man alone ? 

Shall he alone, whom rational we call. 

Be pleased with nothing, if not blessed with all ? 

The bliss of man (could pride that blessing find) 
Is not to act or think beyond mankind ; 190 

No pow'rs of body or of soul to share, 
But what his nature and his state can bear. 
Why has not man a microscopic eye ? 
For this plain reason, Man is not a fly. 
Say what the use, were finer optics giv'n, 195 

T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n ? 
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, 
To smart and agonize at ev'ry pore ? 
Or quick efliiuvia darting through the brain, 
Die of a rose in aromatic pain ? 200 

If nature thundered in his op'ning ears. 
And stunned him with the music of the spheres. 
How would he wish that Heav'n had left him still 
The whisp'ring zephyr, and the purling rill ! 
Who finds not Providence all good and wise, 205 

Alike in what it gives, and what denies ? 

VII. Far as creation's am})]e range extends, 
The scale of sensual, mental pow'rs ascends : 
Mark how it mounts, to man's imperial race, 



24 ALEXANDER POPE. 

From the green myriads in the peopled grass : 210 

What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme, 

The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam : 

Of smell, the headlong lioness between, 

And hound sagacious on the tainted green : 

Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood, 215 

To that Avhich warbles through the vernal wood : 

The spider's touch, how exquisitely line ! 

Feels at each thread, and lives along the line : 

In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true 

From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew ? 220 

How instinct varies in the grov'lling swine, 

Compared, half-reas'ning elephant, with thine ! 

'Twixt that, and reason, what a nice barrier, 

Forever sep'rate, yet forever near ! 

Remembrance and reflection now allied ; 225 

What thin partitions sense from thought divide ; 

And middle natures how they long to join, 

Yet never pass th' insuperable line ! 

Without this just gradation could they be 

Subjected, these to those, or all to thee ? 230 

The pow'rs of all subdued by thee alone. 

Is not thy reason all these pow'rs in one ? 

VIII. See, through this air, this ocean, and this earth, 
All matter quick, and bursting into birth. 
Above, how high, progressive life may go ! 235 

Around, how wide ! how deep extend below ! 
Vast chain of being ! which from God began. 
Natures ethereal, human, angel, man. 
Beast, bird, flsh, insect, what no eye can see, 
No glass can reach ; from infinite to thee, 240 

From thee to nothing. — On superior pow'rs 
Were we to press, inferior might on ours : 
Or in the full creation leave a void. 
Where, one step broken, the great scale 's destroyed : 



ESSAY ON MAN. 25 

From Nature's chain whatever link you strike, 245 

Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. 

And, if each system in gradation roll 
Alike essential to th' amazing whole, 
The least confusion but in one, not all 
That system only, but the whole must fall. 250 

Let earth unbalanced from her orbit fly, 
Planets and suns run lawless through the sky ; 
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurled^ 
Being on being wrecked, and world on world ; 
Heav'n's whole foundations to their centre nod, 255 

And nature tremble to the throne of God. 
All this dread order break — for whom ? for thee ? 
Vile worm ! Oh, madness ! pride ! impiety ! 

IX. What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread. 
Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head ? 2G0 

What if the head, the eye, or ear repined 
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind ? 
Just as absurd for any part to claim 
To be another, in this gen'ral frame ; 

Just as absurd to mourn the tasks or pains 265 

The great directing mind of all ordains. 

All are but parts of one stupendous whole. 
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul ; 
That, changed through all, and yet in all the same ; 
Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame ; 270 

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze. 
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees. 
Lives through all life, extends through all extent. 
Spreads undivided ; operates unspent ; 
Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, 275 

As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart ; 
As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, 
As the ra})t seraph that adores and burns : 
To him no high, no low, no great, no small ; 



26 ALEXANDER POPE. 

He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all. 280 

X. Cease then, nor order imperfection name : 
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame. 
Know thy own point : this kind, this due degree 
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee. 
Submit. — In this, or any other sphere, 285 

Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear : 
Safe in the hand of one disposing pow'r, 
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour. 
All nature is but art, unknown to thee ; 
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see ; 290 

All discord, harmony not understood ; 
All partial evil, universal good ; 
And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, 
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right. 



ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE II. 

ON THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO HIMSELF 
AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 

T. The business of man not to pry into God, but to study himself. 
His middle nature ; his powers and frailties, ver. 1-19. The 
limits of his capacity, ver. 19, etc. — II. The two principles 
of man, self-love and reason, both necessary, ver. 53, etc, 
Self-love the stronger, and why, ver. 67, etc. Their end the 
same, ver. 81, etc. — III. The passions, and their use, ver. 
93-130. The predominant passion, and its force, ver. 132-160. 
Its necessity, in directing men to different purposes, ver. 165, 
etc. Its providential use, in fixing our principle, and ascer- 
taining our virtue, ver. 177. — IV. Virtue and vice joined in 
our mixed nature ; the limits near, yet the things separate 
and evident : What is the office of reason, ver. 202-216. — V. 
How odious vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into 
it, ver. 217. — VI. That, however, the ends of Providence and 
general good are answered in our passions and imperfections, 
ver. 238, etc. How usefully these are distributed to all orders 
of men, ver. 241. How useful they are to society, ver. 251. 
And to individuals, ver. 263. In every state, and every age of 
life, ver. 273, etc. 

EPISTLE II. 

I. Know then thyself, presume not God to scan ; ^ 

The proper study of mankind is man. 
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, 
A being darkly wise, and rudely great : 
With too much knowledge for the sceptic side, 5 

With too much weakness for the stoic's pride, 
He hangs between ; in doubt to act, or rest ; 
In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast ; 

27 



28 ALEXANDER POPE. 

In (luul)t liis inind or body to prefer ; 

Born Init to die, and reas'ning but to err : 10 

Alike in ignorance, liis reason such. 

Whether he thinks too little, or too much : 

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused ; 

Still by himself abused, or disabused ; 

Created half to rise and half to fall ; 15 

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all ; 

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled : 

The glory, jest, and riddle of the Avorld ! 

Go, wondrous creature ! mount where science guides. 
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides ; 20 

Instruct the planets in what orbs to run, 
Correct old Time, and regulate the sun ; 
Go, soar with Plato to th' empyreal sphere. 
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair ; 
Or tread the mazy round his foUow'rs trod, 25 

And quitting sense call imitating God ; 
As eastern priests in giddy circles run, 
And turn their heads to imitate the sun. 
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule — 
Then drop into thyself, and be a fool ! 30 

Superior beings, when of late they saw 
A mortal man unfold all nature's law, 
Admired such wisdom in an earthly shape. 
And showed a Newton as we show an ape. 

Could he, whose rules the rapid comet bind, 35 

Describe or fix one movement of his mind ? 
Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend, 
Explain his own beginning, or his end ? 
Alas, what wonder ! man's superior part 
Unchecked may rise, and climb from art to art ; 40 

But when his own great work is but begun. 
What reason weaves, by passion is undone. 

Trace science then, with modesty thy guide ; 



ESSAY ON MAN. 29 

First stri}* off all her equipage of pride ; 

Deduct wliat is but vanity, or dress, 45 

Or learning's luxury, or idleness ; 

Or tricks to show the stretch of human hrain, 

Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain ; 

Expunge the whole, or lop the excrescent parts 

Of all our vices have created arts ; 50 

Then see how little the remaining sum, 

Which served the past, and must the times to come ! 

II. Two principles in human nature reign ; 
Self-love, to urge, and reason, to restrain ; 
Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call, 55 

Each works its end, to move or gOA^ern all : 
And to their proper operation still, 
Ascribe all good ; to their improper, ill. 

Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul ; 
Reason's comparing balance rules the whole. 60 

Man, but for that, no action could attend. 
And but for this, were active to no end : 
Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot, u^' 

To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot ; 
Or, meteor-like, flame lawless through the void, 65 

Destroying others, by himself destroyed. 

Most strength the moving principle requires ; 
Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires. 
Sedate and quiet the comparing lies. 

Formed but to check, deliberate, and advise. 70 

Self-love still stronger, as its objects nigh ; 
Reason 's at distance, and in prospect lie : 
That sees immediate good by present sense ; 
Reason, the future and the consequence. 
Thicker than arguments, temptations throng, 75 

At best more watchful this, but that more strong. 
The action of the stronger to suspend. 
Reason still use, to reason still attend. 



e 



80 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Attention, habit and experience gains ; 

Each strengthens reason, and self-love restrains. 80 

Let subtle schoolmen teach these friends to light, 
More studious to divide than to unite ; 
And grace and virtue, sense and reason split, 
With all the rash dexterity of wit. 

Wits, just like fools, at war about a name, 85 

Have full as oft no meaning, or the same. 
Self-love and reason to one end aspire. 
Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire ; 
But greedy that, its object would devour. 
This taste the honey, and not wound the flow'r : 90 

Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood, 
Our greatest evil, or our greatest good. 

III. Modes of self-love the passions we may call ; 
'T is real good, or seeming, moves them all : 
But since not ev'ry good we can divide, 95 

And reason bids us for our own provide ; 
Passions, though selfish, if their means be fair, 
List under reason, and deserve her care ; 
Those, that imparted, court a nobler aim. 
Exalt their kind, and take some virtue's name. 100 

In lazy apathy let Stoics boast 
Their virtue fixed ; 't is fixed as in a frost ; 
Contracted all, retiring to the breast ; 
But strength of mind is exercise, not rest : 
The rising tempest puts in act the soul, 105 

Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole. 
On life's vast ocean diversely we sail. 
Reason the card, but passion is the gale ; 
Nor God alone in the still calm we find, 
He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind. 110 

Passions, like elements, though born to fight. 
Yet, mixed and softened, in His work unite : 
These 't is enough to temper and employ ; 



ESSAY ON MAN. 31 

But what composes man, can man destroy ? 

Sufiice tliat reason keep to Nature's road, 115 

Subject, compound them, follow her and God. 

Love, hope, and joy, fair pleasure's smiling train. 

Hate, fear, and grief, the family of pain, 

These mixed with art, and to due bounds confined. 

Make and maintain the balance of the mind : 120 

The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife 

Gives all the strength and color of our life. 

Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes ; 
And when in act they cease, in prospect rise : 
Present to grasp, and future still to find, 125 

The w^hole employ of body and of mind. 
All spread their charms, but charm not all alike ; 
On diff'rent senses diif'rent objects strike ; 
Hence diif'rent passions more or less inflame. 
As strong or weak the organs of the frame. 130 

And hence one Master Passion in the breast, 
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest. 

As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath. 
Receives the lurking principle of death ; 
The young disease, that must subdue at length, 135 

Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength ; 
So, cast and mingled with his very frame. 
The mind's disease, its ruling j^assion came ; 
Each vital humor which should feed the whole. 
Soon flow^s to this, in body and in soul : 140 

Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head, 
As the mind opens and its functions spread, 
Imagination plies her dang'rous art, 
And pours it all upon the peccant part. 

Nature its mother, habit is its nurse ; 145 

Wit, spirit, faculties, but make it worse ; 
Reason itself but gives it edge and pow'r ; 
As heav'n's blest beam turns vinegar more sour. 



32 ALEXANDER POPE. 

We, wretched subjects, though to lawful sway, 
In this weak queen some fav'rite still obey : 150 

Ah ! if she lend not arms, as well as rules, 
What can she more than tell us we are fools ? 
Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend, 
A sharp accuser, but a helpless friend ! 
Or from a judge turn pleader, to persuade 155 

The choice we make, or justify it made ; 
Proud of an easy conquest all along. 
She but removes weak passions for the strong : 
So, when small humors gather to a gout. 
The doctor fancies he has driv'n them out. 160 

Yes, Nature's road must ever be preferred : 
Reason is here no guide, but still a guard : 
'T is hers to rectify, not overthrow. 
And treat this passion more as friend than foe : 
A mightier pow'r the strong direction sends, 165 

And sev'ral men impels to sev'ral ends : 
Like varying winds, by other passions tost. 
This drives them constant to a certain coast. 
Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory, please. 
Or (oft more strong than all) the love of ease ; 170 

Through life 'tis followed, ev'n at life's expense ; 
The merchant's toil, the sage's indolence. 
The monk's humility, the hero's pride. 
All, all alike, find reason on their side. 

Th' Eternal Art educing good from ill, 175 

Grafts on this passion our best principle : 
'T is thus the mercury of man is fixed. 
Strong grows the virtue with his nature mixed ; 
The dross cements what else were too refined. 
And in one int'rest body acts with mind. 180 

As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care. 
On savage stocks inserted, learn to bear ; 
The surest virtues thus from passions shoot, 



ESSAY ON MAN. 38 

Wild ii;iture\s vigor working at the root. 

What crops of wit and honesty appear 185 

From si)leen, from obstinacy, liate, or fear ! 

See anger, zeal and fortitude supply ; 

Ev'n av'rice, prudence ; sloth, philosophy ; 

Lust, through some certain strainers well refined, 

Is gentle love, and charms all womankind ; 100 

Envy, to which th' ignoble mind 's a slave. 

Is emulation in the learn'd or brave ; 

Nor virtue, male or female, can we name. 

But what will grow on pride, or grow on shame. 

Thus nature gives us (let it check our pride) 195 

The virtue nearest to our vice allied ; 
Reason the bias turns to good from ill. 
And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will. 
The fiery soul abhorred in Catiline, 

In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine : 200 

The same ambition can destroy or save. 
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave. 

This light and darkness in our chaos joined. 
What shall divide ? The God within the mind : 

Extremes in nature equal ends produce, 205 

In man they join to some mysterious use ; 
Though each by turns the other's bound invade. 
As, in some well-wrought picture, light and shade, 
And oft so mix, the diff'rence is too nice 
Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice. 210 

Fools ! who from hence into the notion fall. 
That vice or virtue there is none at all. 
If white and black blend, soften and unite 
A thousand ways, is there no black or white ? 
Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain ) 215 

'T is to mistake them, costs the time and pain. ^ 

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, / j/ 

As, to be hated, needs but to be seen ; 



84 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 

We first endure, then pity, then embrace. 220 

But where th' extreme of vice, was ne'er agreed : 

Ask where 's the north ? at York, 't is on the Tweed ; 

In Scotland, at the Orcades ; and there, 

At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where. 

No creature owns it in the first degree, 225 

But thinks his neighbor further gone tlian he : 

Ev'n those who dwell beneath its very zone, 

Or never feel the rage, or never own ; 

What happier natures shrink at with affright. 

The hard inhabitant contends is right. 230 

Virtuous and vicious ev'ry man must be. 
Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree ; 
The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise ; 
And ev'n the best, by fits, what they despise. 
'T is but by parts we follow good or ill ; 235 

For, vice or virtue, self directs it still ; 
Each individual seeks a sev'ral goal ; 
But Heav'n's great view is one, and that the whole. 
That counter-works each folly and caprice ; 
That disappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice ; 240 

That, happy frailties to all ranks applied. 
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride. 
Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief, 
To kings presumption, and to crowds belief ; 
That, virtue's ends from vanity can raise, 245 

Which seeks no int'rest, no reward but praise : 
And build on wants, and on defects of mind. 
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind. 

Heav'n forming each on other to depend, 
A master, or a servant, or a friend, 250 

Bids each on other for assistance call. 
Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all. 
Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally 



ESSAY ON MAN. 35 

The common int'rest, or endear the tie. 

To these we owe true friendship, love sincere, 255 

Each home-felt joy that life inherits here ; 

Yet from the same we learn, in its decline, 

Those joys, those loves, those int'rests to resign ; 

Taught half by reason, half by mere decay. 

To welcome death, and calmly pass away. 260 

AVhate'er the passion, knowledge, fame, or pelf, 
Not one will change his neighbor with himself. 
The learn'd is happy nature to explore, 
The fool is happy and he knows no more ; 
The rich is happy in the plenty giv'n, 265 

The poor contents him with the care of Heav'n. 
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing. 
The sot a hero, lunatic a king ; 
The starving chemist in his golden views 
Supremely blest, the poet in his muse. 270 

See some strange comfort ev'ry state attend, 
And pride bestowed on all, a common friend ; 
See some fit passion ev'ry age supply, 
Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die. 

Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law, 275 

Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw : 
Some livelier play-thing gives his youth delight, 
A little louder, but as empty quite : ^ 

Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage. 
And beads and pray'r-books are the toys of age : 280 

Pleased with this bauble still, as that before ; 
'Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er. 

Meanwhile opinion gilds with varying rays 
Those painted clouds that beautify our days ; 
Each want of happiness by hope supplied, 285 

And each vacuity of sense by pride : 
These build as fast as knowledge can destroy ; 
In folly's cup still laughs the bubble, joy ; 



86 ALEXANDER POPE. 

One prospect lost, another still we gain, 

And not a vanity is giv'n in vain : 290 

Ev'n mean self-love becomes, by force divine, 

The scale to measure others' wants by thine. 

See ! and confess, one comfort still must rise, 

'T is this, Though man 's a fool, yet God is wise. 



ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE III. 

OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO SOCIETY. 

I. The whole universe one system of Society, ver. 7, etc. Nothing 
made wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another, ver. 27. 
The happiness of animals mutual, ver. 49. — II. Reason or in- 
stinct operates alike to the good of each individual, ver. 79. 
Reason or instinct operates also to society, in all animals, ver. 
109. — III. How far Society carried by instinct, ver. 115. 
How much further by Reason, ver. 128. — IV. Of that which 
is called the State of Nature, ver. 144. Reason instructed by 
Instinct in the invention of Arts, ver. 166, and in the Forms of 
Society, ver. 176. — V. Origin of Political Societies, ver. 196. 
Origin of Monarchy, ver. 207. Patriarchal Government, ver. 
212. — VI. Origin of true Religion and Government, from the 
same principle, of Love, ver. 231, etc. Origin of Superstition 
and Tyranny, from the same principle, of Fear, ver. 237, etc. 
The influence of Self-love operating to the social and public 
Good, ver. 266. Restoration of true Religion and Government 
on their first principle, ver. 285. Mixed Government, ver. 288. 
Various Forms of each, and the true end of all, ver. 300, etc. 

EPISTLE III. 

Here then we rest : " The Universal Cause 

Acts to one end, but acts by various laws." 

In all the madness of superfluous health, 

The trim of pride, the impudence of wealth, 

Let this great truth be present night and day ; 5 

But most be present, if we preach or pray. 

Look round our world ; behold the chain of love 
Combining all below and all above. 
See plastic Nature working to this end, 
The single atoms each to other tend, 10 

37 



38 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Attract, attracted to, the next in place 

Formed and impelled its neighbor to embrace. 

See matter next, with various life endued. 

Press to one centre still, the gen'ral good. 

See dying vegetables life sustain, 15 

See life dissolving vegetate again : 

All forms that perish other forms supply, 

(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die,) 

Like bubbles on the sea of matter born, 

They rise, they break, and to that sea return. 20 

Nothing is foreign : parts relate to whole ; 

One all-extending, all-preserving soul 

Connects each being, greatest with the least ; 

Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast ; 

All served, all serving : nothing stands alone ; 25 

The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown. 

Has God, thou fool ! worked solely for thy good, 
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food ? 
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn. 
For him as kindly spread the flow'ry lawn : 30 

Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings ? 
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings. 
Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat ? 
Loves of his own and raptures swell the note. 
The bounding steed you pompously bestride, 35 

Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride. 
Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain ? 
The birds of heav'n shall vindicate their grain. 
Thine the full harvest of the golden year ? 
Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer : 40 

The hog, that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call. 
Lives on the labors of this lord of all. 

Know, Nature's children all divide her care ; 
The fur that warms a monarch, warmed a bear. 
While man exclaims, " See all things for my use ! " 45 



ES8AY ON MAN. 39 

"See iiuiii for mine ! " replies a pampered goose : 
And just as short of reason he must fall, 
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all. 

Grant that the pow'rful still the weak control ; 
Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole : 50 

Nature that tyrant checks ; he only knows. 
And helps, another creature's wants and woes. 
Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, 
Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove V 
Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings ? 55 

Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings ? 
Man cares for all : to birds he gives his woods. 
To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods ; 
For some his int'rest prompts him to provide. 
For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride : 60 

All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy 
Th' extensive blessing of his luxury. 
That very life his learned hunger craves. 
He saves from famine, from the savage saves ; 
Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast, 65 

And, 'till he ends the being, makes it blest : 
Which sees no more the stroke, or feels the pain. 
Than favored man by touch ethereal slain. 
The creature had his feast of life before ; 
Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er ! 70 

To each unthinking being Heav'n, a friend. 
Gives not the useless knowledge of its end : 
To man imparts it ; but with such a view 
As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too : 
The hour concealed, and so remote the fear, 75 

Death still draws nearer, never seeming near. 
Great standing miracle ! that Heav'n assigned 
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind. 

II. Whether with reason or with instinct blest. 
Know, all enjoy that pow'r which suits them best ; 80 



40 ALEXANDER POPE. 

To bliss alike by that direction tend, 

And find the means proportioned to their end. 

Say, where full instinct is th' unerring guide, 

What Pope or council can they need beside ? 

Reason, however able, cool at best, 85 

Cares not for service, or but serves when prest, 

Stays 'till we call, and then not often near ; 

But honest Instinct comes a volunteer. 

Sure never to o'er-shoot, but just to hit ; 

While still too wide or short is human wit ; 90 

Sure by quick nature happiness to gain. 

Which heavier reason labors at in vain. 

This too serves always, reason never long ; 

One must go right, the other may go Avrong. 

See then the acting and comparing ])Ow'rs 95 

One in their nature, which are two in ours ; 

And reason raise o'er instinct as you can, 

In this 't is God directs, in that 't is man. 

Who taught the nations of the field and wood 
To shun their poison, and to choose their food ? 100 

Prescient, the tides or tempests to withstand. 
Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand ? 
Who made the spider parallels design, 
Sure as Demoivre, withovit rule or line ? 
Who did the stork, Columbus-like explore 105 

Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown before ? 
Who calls the council, states the certain day, 
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way ? 

III. God in the nature of each being founds 
Its proper bliss, and sets its proper bounds : 110 

But as He framed a whole, the whole to bless. 
On mutual wants built mutual happiness : 
So from the first eternal order ran. 
And creature linked to creature, man to man. 
Whate'er of life all quick'ning ether keeps, 115 



ESSAY ON MAN. 41 

Or breathes tliroiigli air, or shoots beneath the deeps, 
Or pours profuse on earth, one nature feeds 
The vital flame, and swells the genial seeds. 
Not man alone, but all that roam the wood. 
Or wing the sky, or roll along the flood, 120 

Each loves itself, but not itself alone. 
Each sex desires alike, 'till two are one. 
Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace ; 
They love themselves, a third time, in their race. 
Thus beast and bird their common charge attend, 125 

The mothers nurse it, and the sires defend ; 
The young dismissed to wander earth or air, 
There stops the instinct, and there ends the care ; 
The link dissolves, each seeks a fresh embrace. 
Another love succeeds, another race. 130 

A longer care man's helpless kind demands : 
That longer care contracts more lasting bands : 
Reflection, reason, still the ties improve. 
At once extend the int'rest, and the love ; 
With choice we fix, with sympathy we burn ; 135 

Each virtue in each passion takes its turn ; 
And still new needs, new helps, new habits rise. 
That graft benevolence on charities. 
Still as one brood, and as another rose, 
These nat'ral love maintained, habitual those : 140 

The last, scarce ripened into perfect man. 
Saw helpless him from whom their life began : 
Mem'ry and forecast just returns engage. 
That pointed back to youth, this on to age ; 
While pleasure, gratitude, and hope combined, 145 

Still spread the int'rest, and preserved the kind. \\ 
IV. Nor think, in Nature's state they blindly trod ; 
The state of Nature was the reign of God : 
Self-love and Social at her birth began. 
Union the bond of all things, and of man. 150 



42 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Pride then was not ; nor arts, that pride to aid ; 
Man walked with beast, joint tenant of the shade ; 
The same his table, and the same his bed ; 
No murder clothed him, and no murder fed. 
In the same temple, the resounding wood, 155 

All vocal beings hymned their equal God : 
The shrine with gore unstained, with gold undrest, 
ITnbribed, unbloody, stood the blameless priest : 
Heav'n's attribute was Universal Care, 
And man's prerogative to rule, but spare. 160 

Ah ! how unlike the man of times to come ! 
Of half that live the butcher and the tomb ; 
Who, foe to nature, hears the gen'ral groan. 
Murders their species and betrays his own. 
But just disease to luxury succeeds, 165 

And ev'ry death its own avenger breeds ; 
The fury-passions from that blood began. 
And turned on man a fiercer savage, Man. 
See him from nature rising slow to art ! 
To copy instinct then was reason's part ; 170 

Thus then to man the voice of Nature spake — 
" Go, from the creatures thy instructions take : 
Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield ; 
Learn from the beasts the physic of the field ; 
Thy arts of building from the bee receive ; 175 

Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave ; 
Learn of the little nautilus to sail, 
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. 
Here too all forms of social union find. 
And hence let reason, late, instruct mankind ; 180 

Here subterranean works and cities see ; 
There towns aerial on the waving tree. 
Learn each small })eople's genius, policies. 
The ant's republic, and the realm of bees ; 
How those in common all their wealth bestow, 185 



ESSAY ON MAN. 43 

And anarchy without confusion know ; 

And these forever, though a monarch reign, 

Their sep'rate cells and properties maintain. 

Mark what unvaried laws preserve each state, 

Laws wise as nature, and as fixed as fate. 190 

In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw. 

Entangle justice in her net of law. 

And right, too rigid, harden into wrong, 

Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong. 

Yet go ! and thus o'er all the creatures sway, 195 

Thus let the wiser make the rest obey ; 

And, for those arts mere instinct could afford. 

Be crowned as monarchs, or as gods adored." 

V. Great Nature spoke : observant man obeyed ; 
Cities were built, societies were made ; 200 
Here rose one little state ; another near 

Grew by like means, and joined, through love or fear. 

Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend. 

And there the streams in purer rills descend ? 

What war could ravish, commerce could bestow, 205 

And he returned a friend, who came a foe. 

Converse and love mankind might strongly draw, 

When love was liberty, and Nature law. 

Thus states were formed ; the name of king unknown, 

'Till common int'rest placed the sway in one. 210 

'Twas Virtue only (or in arts or arms. 

Diffusing blessings, or averting harms). 

The same which in a sire the sons obeyed, 

A prince the father of a people made. 

VI. 'Till then, by Nature crowned, each patriarch 215 
sate, 

King, priest, and parent of his growing state ; 
On him, their second Providence, they hung. 
Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue. 
lie from the wand'ring furrow called the food, 



44 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Taught to command the fire, control the flood, 220 

Draw fortli tlie monsters of th' abyss profound, 

Or fetch th' aerial eagle to the ground. 

'Till, drooping, sick'ning, dying, they began 

Whom they revered as God to mourn as man ; 

Then, looking up from sire to sire, explored 225 

One great first Father, and that first adored. 

Or plain tradition that this all begun. 

Conveyed unbroken faith from sire to son ; 

The worker from the work distinct was known, 

And simple reason never sought but one : 230 

Ere wit oblique had broke that steady light, 

Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right ; 

To virtue, in the paths of pleasure, trod. 

And owned a father when he owned a God. 

Love all the faith, and all th' allegiance then ; 235 

For Nature knew no right divine in men. 

No ill could fear in God ; and understood 

A Sov'reign Being but a sov'reign good. 

True faith, true policy, united ran, 

This was but love of God, and this of man. 240 

Who first taught souls enslaved, and realms undone, 
Th' enormous faith of many made for one ; 
That proud exception to all Nature's laws, 
T' invert the world, and counter work its cause ? 
Force first made conquest, and that conquest, law ; 245 
'Till Superstition taught the tyrant awe. 
Then shared the tyranny, then lent it aid, 
And gods of conqu'rors, slaves of subjects made : 
She, 'midst the lightning's blaze, and thunder's sound. 
When rocked the mountains, and when groaned the 250 

ground, 
She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray. 
To pow'r unseen, and mightier far than they : 
She, from the rending earth and bursting skies. 



ESSAY ON MAN. 45 

Saw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise : 

Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blest abodes ; 255 

Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods ; 

Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust. 

Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust ; 

Such as the souls of cowards might conceive, 

And, formed like tyrants, tyrants would believe. 260 

Zeal then, not charity, became the guide ; 

And hell was built on spite, and heav'n on pride. 

Then sacred seemed th' ethereal vault no more ; 

Altars grew marble then, and reeked with gore : 

Then first the Flamen tasted living food ; 265 

Next his grim idol smeared with human blood ; 

With heav'n's own thunders shook the world below. 

And played the god an engine on his foe. 

So drives self-love, through just and through unjust. 
To one man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, lust : 270 

The same self-love, in all, becomes the cause 
Of Avhat restrains him, government and laws. 
For, what one likes if others like as well, 
What serves one will, when many wills rebel ? 
IIow shall he keep, what, sleeping or awake, 275 

A weaker may surprise, a stronger take ? 
His safety must his liberty restrain : 
All join to guard what each desires to gain. 
Forced into virtue thus by self-defence, 
Ev'n kings learned justice and benevolence : 280 

Self-love forsook the path it first pursued. 
And found the private in the public good. 

'T was then, the studious head or gen'rous mind, 
FoUow'r of God or friend of human kind. 
Poet or Patriot, rose but to restore 285 

The faith and moral Nature gave before ; 
Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new ; 
If not God's image, yet His shadow drew : 



46 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Taught pow'r's due use to people and to kings, 

Taught nor to slack, nor strain its tender strings, 290 

The less, or greater, set so justly true. 

That touching one must strike the other too ; 

Till jarring int'rests, of themselves create 

Th' according music of a well-mixed state. 

Such is the world's great harmony that springs 295 

From order, union, full consent of things : 

Where small and great, where weak and mighty, made 

To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade ; 

More pow'rful each as needful to the rest. 

And, in proportion as it blesses, blest ; 300 

Draw to one point, and to one centre bring 

Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king. 

For forms of government let fools contest ; 
Whate'er is best administered is best : 
For modes of faith let graceless zealots light ; 305 

His can't l)e wrong whose life is in the right ; 
In Faith and Hope the world will disagree. 
But all mankind's concern is Charity : 
All must be false that thwart this one great end, 
And all of God, that bless mankind or mend. 310 

Man, like the gen'rous vine, supported lives ; 
The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives. 
On their own axis as the planets run, 
Yet make at once their circle round the sun ; 
So two consistent motions act the soul ; 315 

And one regards itself, and one the whole. 
Thus God and Nature linked the gen'ral frame, 
And bade Self-love and Social be the same. 



ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE IV. 

OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO HAPPINESS. 

I. False notions of happiness, philosophical and popular, answered 
from ver. 19 to 27.— II. It is the end of all men, and attainable 
by all, ver. 30. God intends happiness to be equal ; and to be 
so, it must be social, since all particular happiness depends on 
general, and since He governs by general, not particular laws, 
ver. 37. As it is necessary for order, and the peace and 
welfare of society, that external goods should be unequal, 
happiness is not made to consist in these, ver. 51. But, not- 
withstanding that inequality, the balance of happiness among 
mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two passions of 
hope and fear, ver. 70.— III. What the happiness of individu- 
als is, as far as is consistent with the constitution of this 
world ; and that the good man has here the advantage, ver. 
77. The error of imputing to virtue what are only the calami- 
ties of nature, or of fortune, ver. 94.— IV. The folly of ex- 
pecting that God should alter His general laws in favor of 
particulars, ver. 121.— V. That we are not judges who are 
good ; but that, whoever they are, they must be happiest, ver. 
133, etc.— VI. That external goods are not the proper rewards, 
but often inconsistent with, or destructive of virtue, ver. 165. 
That even these can make no man happy without virtue : 
instanced in riches, ver, 183. Honors, ver. 191. Nobihty, 
ver. 203. Greatness, ver. 215. Fame, ver. 235. Superior tal- 
ents, ver. 257, etc. With pictures of human infehcity in men 
possessed of them all, ver. 267, etc.— VII. That virtue only 
constitutes a happiness, whose object is universal, and whose 
prospect eternal, ver. 307, etc. That the perfection of virtue 
and happiness consists in a conformity to the order of Provi- 
dence here, and a resignation to it here and hereafter, ver. 
326, etc. 

EPISTLE IV. 

O Happiness ! our being's end and aim ! 

Good, Pleasure, Ease, Content, whate'er thy name : 

47 • 



48 ATiEXANDER POPE. 

Tliat something still which prompts th' eternal sigh, 

For which we beai" to live, or dare to die. 

Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, 5 

O'erlooked, seen double, by the fool and wise. 

Plant of celestial seed ! if dropt below, 

Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow ? 

Fair op'ning to some Court's propitious shine. 

Or deep with di'monds in the flaming mine ? 10 

Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield. 

Or reaped in iron harvests of the field ? 

Where grows ? — where grows it not ? If vain our toil, 

We ought to blame the culture, not the soil : 

Fixed to no spot is happiness sincere, 15 

'T is nowhere to be found, or ev'ry where : 

'T is never to be bought, but always free. 

And fled from monarchs, St. John ! dwells with thee. 

Ask of the learned the way ? The learned are blind ; 
This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind ; 20 

Some place the bliss in action, some in ease. 
Those call it pleasure, and contentment these ; 
Some sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain ; 
Some swelled to gods, confess e'en virtue vain ; 
Or indolent, to each extreme they fall, 25 

To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all. 

Who thus define it, say they more or less 
Than this, that happiness is happiness ? 

Take Nature's path, and mad opinion's leave ; 
All states can reach it, and all heads conceive ; 30 

Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell ; 
There needs but thinking right and meaning well ; 
And mourn our various portions as we please, 
Equal is common sense, and common ease. 

Remember, man, " the Universal Cause 35 

Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws " ; 
And makes what happiness we justly call 



ESSAY ON MAN. 49 

Subsist not in the good of one, but all. 

There's not a blessing individuals lind, 

But some way leans and hearkens to the kind : 40 

No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride, 

No cavern'd hermit, rests self-satisfied : 

Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend, 

Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend : 

Abstract what others feel, what others think, 45 

All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink : 

Each has his share ; and who would more obtain. 

Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain. 

Order is heav'n's first law ; and this confest. 
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, 50 

More rich, more wise ; but who infers from hence 
That such are happier, shocks all common sense. 
Heav'n to mankind impartial we confess. 
If all are equal in their happiness : 

But mutual wants this happiness increase ; 55 

All Nature's diff'rence keeps all Nature's peace. 
Condition, circumstance is not the thing ; 
Bliss is the same in subject or in king. 
In who obtain defence, or who defend. 
In him who is, or him who finds a friend : 60 

Heav'n breathes through ev'ry member of the whole 
One common blessing, as one common soul. 
But fortune's gifts if each alike possest. 
And each were equal, must not all contest ? 
If then to all men happiness was meant, 65 

God in externals could not place content. 

Fortune her gifts may variously dispose. 
And these be happy called, unhappy those : 
But Ileav'n's just balance equal will appear, 
While those are placed in hope, and these in fear : 70 

Not present good or ill, the joy or curse. 
But future views of better, or of worse. 

4 



50 ALEXANDER POPE. 

O sons of earth ! attempt ye still to rise, 

By mountains piled on mountains, to the skies ? 

Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys, 75 

And buries madmen in the heaps they raise. 

Know, all the good that individuals find, 
Or God and Nature meant to mere mankind, 
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense. 
Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence. 80 

But health consists with temperance alone ; 
And Peace, O Virtue ! Peace is all thy own. 
The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain ; 
But these less taste them, as they worse obtain. 
Say, in pursuit of profit or delight, 85 

Who risk the most, that take wrong means, or right ? 
Of vice or virtue, whether blest or curst. 
Which meets contempt, or which compassion first ? 
Count all th' advantage prosp'rous vice attains, 
'T is but what virtue flies from and disdains : 90 

And grant the bad what happiness they would, 
One they must want, which is to pass for good. 

Oh, blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below. 
Who fancy bliss to vice, to virtue woe ! 
Who sees and follows that great scheme the best, 95 

Best knov/s the blessing, and will most be blest. 
But fools the good alone unhappy call, 
For ills or accidents that chance to all. 
See, Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just ! 
See god-like Turenne prostrate on the dust ! 100 

See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife ! 
Was this their virtue, or contempt of life ? 
Say, was it virtue, more though Heav'n ne'er gave. 
Lamented Digby ! sunk thee to the grave ? 
Tell me, if virtue made the son expire, 105 

Why, full of days and honor, lives the sire ? 
Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath. 



ESSAY ON MAN. 51 

When nature sickened, and, each gale was death ? 

Or why so long (in life if long can be) 

Lent Heav'n a parent to the poor and me ? 110 

What makes all physical or moral ill ? 
There deviates Nature, and here wanders Will. 
God sends not ill ; if rightly understood, 
Or partial ill is universal good. 

Or change admits, or Nature lets it fall ; 115 

Short, and but rare, till Man improved it all. 
We just as wisely might of Heav'n complain 
That righteous Abel was destroyed by Cain, 
As that the virtuous son is ill at ease 

When his lewd father gave the dire disease. 120 

Think we, like some weak prince, th' Eternal Cause 
Prone for his fav'rites to reverse his laws ? 

Shall burning ^tna, if a sage requires. 
Forget to thunder, and recall her fires ? 
On air or sea new motions be imprest, 125 

Oh, blameless Bethel ! to relieve thy breast ? 
When the loose mountain trembles from on high. 
Shall gravitation cease, if you go by ? 
Or some old temple, nodding to its fall. 
For Chart res' head reserve the hanging wall ? 130 

But still this world (so fitted for the knave) 
Contents us not. A better shall we have ? 
A kingdom of the just then let it be : 
But first consider how those just agree. 
The good must merit God's peculiar care ; 135 

But who, but God, can tell us who they are ? 
One thinks on Calvin Heav'n's own spirit fell ; 
Another deems him instrument of hell ; 
If Calvin feel Heav'n's blessing, or its rod, 
This cries there is, and that, there is no God. 140 

What shocks one part will edify the rest, 
Nor with one system can they all be blest. 



52 ALEXANDER POPE. 

The very best Avill variously, incline, 

And what rewards your virtue, punish mine. 

Whatever is, is right. — This world, 't is true, 145 

Was made for Ciesar — but for Titus too : 

And which more blest ? who chained his country, say, 

Or he whose virtue sighed to lose a day ? 

" But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed." 
What then ? Is the reward of virtue bread ? 150 

That, vice may merit, 't is the price of toil ; 
The knave deserves it, when he tills the soil. 
The knave deserves it, when he tempts the main, 
Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain. 
The good man may be weak, be indolent ; 155 

Nor is his claim to plenty, but content. 
But grant him riches, your demand is o'er ? 
" No — shall the good want health, the good want pow'r ? " 
Add health, and pow'r, and every earthly thing, 160 

" Why bounded pow'r ? why private ? why no king ? " 
Nay, why external for internal giv'n ? 
Why is not man a god, and earth a heav'n ? 
Who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive 
God gives enough, while He has more to give : 
Immense the pow'r, immense were the demand ; 165 

Say, at what part of nature wall they stand ? 

What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy. 
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy, 
Is virtue's prize. A better would you fix ? 
Then give humility a coach and six, 170 

Justice a conqu'ror's sword, or truth a gown. 
Or public spirit its great cure, a crown. 
Weak, foolish man ! will Heav'n reward us there 
With the same trash mad mortals wish for here ? 
The boy and man an individual makes, 175 

Yet sigh'st thou now for apples and for cakes ? 
Go, like the Indian, in another life 



ESSAY ON MAN. 53 

Expect thy dog, tliy bottle, and tliy wife ; 

As well as dream such trifles are assigned, 

As toys and empires, for a god-like mind. 180 

Rewards, that either would to virtue bring 

No joy, or be destructive of the thing : 

How oft by these at sixty are undone 

The virtues of a saint at twenty-one ! 

To whom can riches give repute, or trust, 185 

Content, or pleasure, but the good and just? 
Judges and senates have been bought for gold. 
Esteem and love were never to be sold. 

fool ! to think God hates the worth}^ mind. 

The lover and the love of humankind, 190 

Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear, 
Because he wants a thousand pounds a year. 
Honor and shame from no condition rise ; 
Act well your part, there all the honor lies. 
Fortune in men has some small diff'rence made, 195 

One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade ; 
The cobbler aproned, and the parson gowned, 
The friar hooded, and the monarch crowned. 
"What differ more" (you cry) "than crown and cowl ?" 

1 '11 tell you, friend ; a wise man and a fool. 200 
You '11 find, if once the monarch acts the monk, 

Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk. 

Worth makes the man, and want of it, the fellow ; 

The rest is all but leather or prunella. 

Stuck o'er with titles and hung round with strings, 205 
That thou niay'st be by kings, or whores of kings. 
Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race. 
In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece : 
But by your fathers' worth if yours you rate. 
Count me those only who were good and great. 210 

Go ! if your ancient, but ignoble, blood 
Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood, 



54 ALEXANDER POPE. 



"to 



Go ! and j^i't^teiid your family is yoiui! 

Nor own, your fathers have been fools so long. 

What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards ? 215 

Alas ! not all the blood of all the Howards. 

Look next on greatness ; say where greatness lies ? 
" Where, but among the heroes and the wise ? " 
Heroes are much the same, the point 's agreed, 
From Macedonia's madman to the Swede ; 220 

The whole strange purpose of their lives to find, 
Or make, an enemy of all mankind ! 
Not one looks backward, onward still he goes. 
Yet ne'er looks forward farther than his nose. 
No less alike the politic and wise ; 225 

All sly slow things, with circums23ective eyes : 
Men in their loose, unguarded hours they take, 
Not that themselves are wise, but others Aveak. 
But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat ; 
'T is phrase absurd to call a villain great : 230 

Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, 
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave. 
Who noble ends by noble means obtains, 
Or, failing, smiles in exile or in chains. 
Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed 235 

Like Socrates, that man is great indeed. 

What 's fame ? a fancied life in others' breath, 
A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death. 
Just what you hear, you have, and what 's unknown 
The same (my Lord) if Tully's or your own. 240 

All that we feel of it begins and ends 
In the small circle of our foes or friends ; 
To all beside as much an empty shade 
An Eugene living, as a Caesar dead ; 

Alike or when, or where, they shone or shine, 245 

Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine. 
A wit 's a feather, and a chief a rod ; 



ESSAY ON MAN. 55 

An honest Man 's the noblest work of God. 

Fame but from death a villain's name can save, 

As Justice tears his body from the grave ; 250 

When what t' oblivion better were resigned, 

Is hung on high to poison half mankind. 

All fame is foreign, but of true desert ; 

Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart : 

One self -approving hour whole years outweighs 255 

Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas ; 

And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels, 

Than Caesar with a senate at his heels. 

In parts superior what advantage lies ? 
Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise ? 260 

'T is but to know how little can be known ; 
To see all others' faults, and feel our own ; 
Condemned in bus'ness or in arts to drudge, 
Without a second, or without a judge : 
Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land ? 265 

All fear, none aid you, and few understand. 
Painful pre-eminence ! yourself to view 
Above life's weakness, and its comforts too. 

Bring then these blessings to a strict account ; 
Make fair deductions ; see to what they mount : 270 

How much of other each is sure to cost ; 
How each for other oft is wholly lost ; 
How inconsistent greater goods with these ; 
How sometimes life is risked, and always ease : 
Think, and, if still the things thy envy call, 275 

Say, wouldst thou be the Man to whom they fall ? 
To sigh for ribands if thou art so silly, 
Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy : 
Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life ? 
Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus' wife : 280 

If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined, 
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind : 



56 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Or ravished with the whistling of a name, 

See Cromwell, damned to everlasting fame ! 

If all, united, thy ambition call, 285 

From ancient story learn to scorn them all. 

There, in the rich, the honored, famed, and great, 

See the false scale of happiness complete ! 

In hearts of kings, or arms of queens who lay. 

How happy ! those to ruin, these betray, 290 

Mark by what wretched steps their glory grows, 

From dirt and seaweed as proud Venice rose ; 

In each how guilt and greatness equal ran. 

And all that raised the hero, sunk the man ; 

Now Europe's laurels on their brows behold, 295 

But stained with blood, or ill-exchanged for gold : 

Then see them broke with toils, or sunk in ease. 

Or infamous for plundered provinces. 

Oh, wealth ill-fated ! which no act of fame 

E'er taught to shine, or sanctified from shame ; 300 

What greater bliss attends their close of life ? 

Some greedy minion, or imperious wife, 

The trophied arches, storied halls invade 

And haunt their slumbers in the pompous shade. 

Alas ! not dazzled with their noontide ray, 305 

Compute the morn and ev'ning to the day ; 

The whole amount of that enormous fame, 

A tale, that blends their glory with their shame ! 

Know then this truth (enough for man to know) 
"Virtue alone is happiness below." 310 

The only point where human bliss stands still, 
And tastes the good without the fall to ill ; 
Where only merit constant pay receives. 
Is blest in what it takes, and what it gives ; 
The joy unequalled, if its end it gain, 315 

And if it lose, attended with no pain : 
Without satiety, though e'er so blessed, 



ESSAY ON MAN. 57 

And but more relished as the more distressed : 

The broadest mirth unfeeling folly wears, 

Less pleasing far than virtue's very tears : 320 

Good, from each object, from each place acquired. 

Forever exercised, yet never tired ; 

Never elated, while one man 's oppressed ; 

Never dejected, while another's blessed ; 

And where no wants, no wishes can remain, 325 

Since but to wish more virtue, is to gain. 

See the sole bliss Heav'n could on all bestow ! 
Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know : 
Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind, 
The bad must miss ; the good, untaught, will find ; 330 
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, 
But looks through Nature up to Nature's God ; 
Pursues that chain which links th' immense design, 
Joins heav'n and earth, and mortal and divine ; 
Sees, that no being any bliss can know, 335 

But touches some above, and some below : 
Learns, from this union of the rising whole. 
The first, last purpose of the human soul ; 
And knows, where faith, law, morals, all began, 
All end, in love of God, and love of man. 340 

For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal, 
And opens still, and opens on his soul ; 
Till lengthened on to Faith and unconfined. 
It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind. 
He sees, why Nature plants in man alone 345 

Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown : 
(Nature, whose dictates to no other kind 
Are giv'n in vain, but what they seek they find) 
Wise in her present ; she connects in this 
His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss, 350 

At once his own bright prospect to be blest. 
And strongest motive to assist the rest. 



58 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Self-love thus pushed to social, to divine, 
Gives thee to make thy neighbor's blessing thine. 
Is this too little for the boundless heart ? 355 

Extend it, let thy enemies have part : 
Grasp the whole worlds of reason, life, and sense, 
In one close system of benevolence : 
Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree, 
And height of Bliss but height of Charity. 360 

God loves from whole to parts : but human soul 
Must rise from individual to the whole. 
Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, 
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake ; 
The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds, 365 

Another still, and still another spreads ; 
Friend, parent, neighbor, first it will embrace ; 
His country next ; and next all human race ; 
Wide and more wide, th' o'erflowings of the mind 
Take ev'ry creature in, of ev'ry kind ; 370 

Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blest, 
And heav'n beholds its image in his breast. 

Come, then, my Friend ! my Genius ! come along ; 
Oh, master of the poet, and the song ! 
And while the muse now stoops, or now ascends, 375 

To man's low passions, or their glorious ends, 
Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise, 
To fall with dignity, with temper rise ; 
Formed by thy converse, happily to steer 
From grave to gay, from lively to severe ; 380 

Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease, 
Intent to reason, or polite to please. 
Oh, while along the stream of time thy name 
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame. 
Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, 385 

Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale ? 
When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose. 



ESSAY ON MAN. 59 

Whose sons sliall blush their fathers were thy foes, 

Sliall then this verse to future age pretend 

Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend ? 390 

That urged by thee, I turned the tuneful art 

From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart ; 

For wit's false mirror held up Nature's light ; 

Showed erring pride, whatever is, is right ; 

That reason, passion, answer one great aim ; 395 

That true Self-love and Social are the same ; 

That Virtue only makes our bliss below ; 

And all our knowledge is ourselves to know. 



THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. 

Some passages in the ' ' Essay on Man " having been unjustly 
suspected of a tendency towards Fate and Naturalism, the author 
composed a prayer as the sum of all, which was intended to show 
that his system was founded in Free-will and terminated in Piety. 
— From Warburton. 

deo. opt. max. 

Father of all ! in ev'ry age, 

In ev'ry clime adored, 
By saint, by savage, and by sage, 

Jehovah, Jove, or Lord ! 

Thou Great First Cause, least understood : 

Who all my sense confined 
To know but this, that Thou art good, 

And that myself am blind ; 

Yet gave me, in this dark estate. 

To see the good from ill ; 
And binding Nature fast in Fate, 

Left free the human will. 

What conscience dictates to be done. 

Or warns me not to do. 
This, teach me more than hell to shun, 

That, more than heav'n pursue. 

What blessings Thy free bounty gives, 

Let me not cast away ; 
For God is paid when man receives : 

T' enjoy is to obey. 

Yet not to earth's contracted span 

Thy goodness led me bound. 
Or think Thee Lord alone of man. 

When thousand worlds are round. 
60 



THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. 61 

Let not this weak, unknowing liand 

Presume Thy bolts to throw, 
And deal damnation round the land 

On each I judge Thy foe. 

If I am right, Thy grace impart, 

Still in the right to stay ; 
If I am wrong, oh, teach my heart 

To find that better way. 

Save me alike from foolish pride 

Or impious discontent. 
At aught Thy wisdom has denied. 

Or aught Thy goodness lent. 

Teach me to feel another's woe, 

To hide the fault I see ; 
That mercy I to others show, 

That mercy show to me. 

Mean though I am, not wholly so, 

Since quickened by Thy breath ; 
Oh, lead me wheresoe'er I go, 

Through this day's life or death. 

This day, be bread and peace my lot : 

All else beneath the sun, 
Thou know'st if best bestowed or not ; 

And let Thy will be done. 

To Thee, whose temple is all space, 

Whose altar, earth, sea, skies, 
One chorus let all being raise ; 

All nature's incense rise I 



PREFACE TO THE "ESSAY ON CRITI- 
CISM." 

From the point of view of criticism, this poem ranks 
among the phenomena of literature. It was written when 
Pope was in his twenty-first year, but shows the maturity 
of a man of forty, or of one grown ohl in critical research. 
He began very early to study Chaucer, Spenser, and Dry- 
den. As a boy he found delight in Homer, Vergil, and 
Ovid. His frequent annotations from Quintilian show 
that he made that author the object of studious reflection. 
Trumball, " Pope's schoolmaster in poetry," was the first 
to turn the young poet's attention to the study of the 
French critics. Evidence of this study is found in Pope's 
flattering allusion to Boileau, whose writings were a 
strong factor in forming the style of the French writers 
of his day. 

The aim of the poet in this Essay is not to make 
an original contribution to the art of Criticism, nor to 
write an exact treatise on Poetry, but to reduce to an 
orderly method the current opinions of the wiser critics, 
and to accentuate the leading principles of good writing. 
His purpose was, succinct, poignant, luminous expression : 
to state in cogent English " what oft was thought, but 
ne'er so well expressed." 

Among the noticeable features of this engaging poem 
are these : 

(I) Its noble appeal to nature (52-74). 

(II) Its incisive analysis of human motive (583, 631- 
42). 

63 



64 ALEXANDER POPE. 

(III) Its pre-eminent good sense (574-8). 

(IV) Its cutting satire (35-44, 503-9, 610-21). 

(V) Its fitting simile (9, 10, 8(3, 87, 243-52, 315-17, 
585-7). 

The aphoristic character of this poem is marked. Like 
the Essay on Man, its finest thoughts are salient, i)ro- 
verbial, and quotable, as for example : 

*' A little learning is a dangerous thing." 

" Words are like leaves ; and where they most abound 
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found." 

" To err is human, to forgive divine." 

" To make each day a critic on the last." 

" For fools rush in where angels fear to tread." 

*' For each ill author is as bad a friend." 



AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 

Written in the year 1709. Published 1711. 



CONTENTS. 

Introduction— tliat it is as great a fault to judge as to write ill, 
and a more dangerous one to the public, ver. 1. That a true 
taste is as rare to be found as a true genius, ver. 9-18. That 
most men are born with some taste, but spoilt by false educa- 
tion, ver. 19-25. The multitude of critics and causes of them, 
ver. 26-45. That we are to study our own taste, and know 
the limits of it, ver. 46-67. Nature the best guide of judg- 
ment, ver. 68-87. Improved by art and rules, wliich are but 
methodized nature, ver. 88. Rules derived from the practice 
of the ancient poets, ver. 88-110. That therefore the ancients 
are necessary to be studied by critics, particularly Homer and 
Vergil, ver. 120-138. Of Licenses and the use of them by the 
ancients, ver. 140-180. Reverence due to the ancients and 
praise of them, ver. 181, etc.— II. Causes hindering a true 
judgment. (1). Pride, ver. 208. (2). Imperfect learning, ver. 
215. (8). Judging by parts and not by the whole, ver. 233- 

^ 288. Critics in wit, language, versification only, ver. 288, 
305, 339, etc. (4). Being too hard to please or too apt to admire, 
ver. 384. (5). Partiality — too much love to a sect — to the an- 
cients or moderns, ver. 394. (6). Prejudice or prevention, ver. 
408. (7). Singularity, ver. 424. (8). Inconstancy, ver. 430. (9). 
Party, ver. 452, etc. (10). Envy, ver. 466. Against envy and 
in praise of good nature, ver. 508, etc. When severity 
is chiefly to be used by critics, ver. 526.— III. Rules for the 
conduct of manners in a critic. (1). Candor, ver. 563. 
Modesty, ver. 566. Good breeding, ver. 572. Sincerity and 
freedom of advice, ver. 578. (2). When one's counsel is to be 
restrained, ver, 584. Character of an incorrigible poet, ver. 
65 



66 ALEXANDER POPE. 

600. And of an impertinent critic, ver. 610, etc. Character 
of a good critic, ver. 629. The history of criticism and char- 
acters of the best critics. Aristotle, ver. 645. Horace, ver. 
653. Dionysius, ver. 665. Petronius, ver. 667. Quintilian, 
ver. 670. Longinus, ver. 675. Of the decay of criticism and 
its revival ; Erasmus, ver. 693. Vida, ver. 705. Boileau, ver. 
714. Lord Roscommon, etc., 725. Conclusion. 

' T IS hard to say, if greater want of skill 

Appear in writing or in judging ill ; 

But, of tlie two, less dang'rous is th' offence 

To tire our patience, than mislead our sense. 

Some few in that, but numbers err in this, 5 

Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss ; 

A fool might once himself alone expose. 

Now one in verse makes many more in prose. 

'T is with our judgments as our watches, none 

Go just alike, yet each believes his own. 10 

In poets as true genius is but rare. 

True taste as seldom is the critic's share ; 

Both must alike from Heav'n derive their light, 

These born to judge, as well as those to write. 

Let such teach others, who themselves excel, 15 

And censure freel}^ who have written well. 

Authors are partial to their wit, 't is true. 

But are not critics to their judgment too ? 

Yet if we look more closely, we shall find 
Most have the seeds of judgment in their mind : 20 

Nature affords at least a glimm'ring light ; 
The lines, though touched but faintly, are drawn right. 
But as the slightest sketch, if justly traced. 
Is by ill-coloring but the more disgraced. 
So by false learning is good sense defaced : 25 

Some are bewildered in the maze of schools, 
And s.onie made coxcombs nature meant but fools. 
In search of wit these lose their common sense^, 



ESSAY ON CKITICISM. 67 

And then turn critics in their own defence : 

Each burns alike, who can, or cannot write, 30 

Or with a rival's, or an eunuch's spite. 

All fools have still an itching to deride. 

And fain would be upon the laughing side. 

If Moevius scribble in Apollo's spite, 

There are, who judge still worse than he can write. 35 

Some have at first for wits, then poets past. 
Turned critics next, and proved plain fools at last. 
Some neither can for wits nor critics pass. 
As heavy mules are neither horse nor ass. 
Those half -learned witlings, num'rous in our isle, 40 

As half -formed insects on the banks of Nile ; 
Unfinished things, one knows not what to call. 
Their generation 's so equivocal ; 
To tell 'm, would a hundred tongues require. 
Or one vain wit's, that might a hundred tire. 45 

But you who seek to give and merit fame. 
And justly bear a critic's noble name. 
Be sure yourself and your own reach to know. 
How far your genius, taste, and learning go ; 
Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet, 50 

And mark that point where sense and dulness meet. | 

Nature to all things fixed the limits fit, ' 

And wisely curbed proud man's pretending wit. 
As on the land while here the ocean gains. 
In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains ; 55 

Thus in the soul while memory prevails. 
The solid pow'r of understanding fails ; 
Where beams of warm imagination play, 
The memory's soft figures melt away. 

One science only Avill one genius fit ; 60 

So vast is art, so narrow human wit : 
Not only bounded to peculiar arts. 
But oft in those confined to single parts. 



68 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Like kings we lose the conquests gained before, 
By vain ambition still to make them more ; 65 

Each might his sev'ral province well command, 
Would all but stoop to what they understand. 

First follow Nature, and your judgment frame 
By her just standard, which is still the same : 
Unerring Nature, still divinely bright, 70 

One clear, unchanged, and universal light. 
Life, force, and beauty, must to all impart. 
At once the source, and end, and test of art. 
Art from that fund each just supply provides, 
Works without show, and without pomp presides ; 75 
In some fair body thus th' informing soul 
With spirits feeds, with vigor fills the whole, 
Each motion guides, and ev'ry nerve sustains ; 
Itself unseen, but in th' effects, remains. 
Some, to whom Heav'n in wit has been profuse, 80 

Want as much more to turn it to its use ; 
For wit and judgment often are at strife : 
Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife. 
' T is more to guide than spur the Muse's steed ; 
Restrain his fury than provoke his speed ; 85 

The winged courser, like a gen'rous horse. 
Shows most true metal when you check his course. 

Those rules of old discovered, not devised. 
Are Nature still, but Nature methodized ; 
Nature, like Liberty, is but restrained 90 

By the same laws which first herself ordained. 

Hear how learned Greece her useful rules indites, 
When to repress and when indulge our flights ; 
High on Parnassus' top her sons she showed. 
And pointed out those arduous paths they trod ; 95 

Held from afar, aloft, th' immortal prize. 
And urged the rest by equal steps to rise. 
Just precepts thus from great examples giv'n, 



ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 69 

She drevv^ from tlicni what they derived from Heav'ii. 

The geii'rous critic fanned the poet's iire, 100 

And taught the worhl witli reason to admire. 

Then Criticism the Muse's handmaid proved, 

To dress her charms and make her more beloved : 

But following wits from that intention strayed, 

Who could not win the mistress, wooed the maid ; 105 

Against the poets their own arms they turned, 

Sure to hate most the men from whom they learned. 

So modern ' Pothecaries, taught the art 

By doctor's bills to play the doctor's part. 

Bold in the practice of mistaken rules, 110 

Prescribe, apply, and call their masters fools. 

Some on the leaves of ancient authors prey. 

Nor time nor moths e'er spoiled so much as they. 

Some drily plain, without invention's aid, 

Write dull receipts how poems may be made : 115 

These leave the sense, their learning to display. 

And those explain the meaning quite away. 

You then whose judgment the right course would steer. 
Know well each ancient's proper character ; 
His fable, subject, scope in ev'ry page ; 120 

Religion, country, genius of his age ; 
Without all these at once before your eyes, 
Cavil you may, but never criticise. 
Be Homer's works your study and delight. 
Read them by day, and meditate by night ; 125 

Thence form your judgment, thence your maxim's bring, 
And trace the Muses upward to their spring. 
Still with itself compared, his text peruse ; 
And let your comment be the Mantuan Muse. 

When first young Maro in his boundless mind 130 

A work t' outlast immortal Rome designed. 
Perhaps he seemed above the critic's law. 
And but from Nature's fountains scorned to draw : 



70 ALEXANDER POPE. 

But when t' examine ev'iy part lie eame, 

Nature and Homer were, he found, the same. 135 

Convinced, amazed, he checks the bohl design ; 

And rules as strict his labored work confine, 

As if the Stagirite o'erlooked each line. 

Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem ; 

To copy nature is to cojjy them. 140 

Some beauties yet no precepts can declare. 
For there 's a happiness as well as care. 
Music resembles poetry ; in each 
Are nameless graces which no methods teach, 
And which a master-hand alone can reach. 145 

If, where the rules not far enough extend, 
(Since rules were made but to promote their end,) 
Some lucky license answer to the full 
Th' intent proposed, that license is a rule. 
Thus Pegasus, a nearer way to take, 150 

May boldly deviate from the common track. 
From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part. 
And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art, 
Which, without passing through the judgment, gains 
The heart, and all its end at once attains. 155 

In prospects thus, some objects please our eyes. 
Which out of nature's common order rise. 
The shapeless rock, or hanging precipice. 
Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend, 
And rise to faults true critics dare not mend. 160 

But thoiJgh the ancients thus their rules invade, 
(As kings dispense with laws themselves have made,) 
Moderns, beware ! or if you must offend 
Against the precept, ne'er transgress its end ; 
Let it be seldom, and compelled by need ; 165 

And have, at least, their precedent to plead. 
The critic else proceeds without remorse. 
Seizes your fame and puts his laws in force. 



ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 71 

I know there are, to whose presumptuous thoughts 
Those freer beauties, i!v'n in them, seem faults. 170 

Some figures monstrous and misshaped appear, 
Considered singly, or beheld too near, 
Which, but proportioned to their light or place. 
Due distance reconciles to form and grace. 
A prudent chief not always must display 175 

His pow'rs in equal ranks, and fair array ; 
But with th' occasion and the place comply. 
Conceal his force, nay, seem sometimes to fly. 
Those oft are stratagems which error seem. 
Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream. 180 

Still green Avith bays each ancient altar stands. 
Above the reach of sacrilegious hands ; 
Secure from flames, from envy's fiercer rage, 
Destructive war, and all-involving age. 
See, from each clime the learned their incense bring ! 185 
Hear, in all tongues consenting Paeans ring ! 
In praise so just let ev'ry voice be joined, 
And fill the gen'ral chorus of mankind. 
Hail, bards triumphant ! born in happier days ; 
Immortal heirs of universal praise ! 190 

Whose honors with increase of ages grow, 
As streams roll down, enlarging as they flow ; 
Nations unborn your mighty names shall sound. 
And worlds applaud that must not yet be found ! 
Oh, may some spark of your celestial fire 195 

The last, the meanest of your sons inspire, 
(That on weak wings, from far, pursues your flights. 
Glows while he reads, but trembles as he writes,) 
To teach vain wits a science little known, 
T' admire superior sense, and doubt their own ! 200 



72 ALEXANDEK POPE. 



II. 



Of all the causes which conspire to blind 
Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind, 
What the weak head with strongest bias rules. 
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools. 
Whatever nature has in worth denied, 205 

She gives in large recruits of needful pride ; 
For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find 
What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind : 
Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence. 
And fills up all the mighty void of sense. 210 

If once right reason drives that cloud away, 
Truth breaks upon us with resistless day. 
Trust not yourself ; but, your defects to know 
Make use of ev'ry friend — and ev'ry foe. 

A little learning is a dang'rous thing ; 215 

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring : 
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain. 
And drinking largely sobers us again. 
Fired at first sight with what the muse imparts, 
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts, 220 

While from the bounded level of our mind 
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind ; 
But, more advanced, behold with strange surprise 
New distant scenes of endless science rise ! 
So pleased at first the tow'ring Alps we try, 225 

Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky, 
Th' eternal snows appear already past. 
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last ; 
But, those attained, we tremble to survey 
The growing labors of the lengthened way, 230 

Th' increasing prospect tires our wand'ring eyes, 
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise ! 

A perfect judge will read each work of wit 



ESSAY ON CRITICISM. • 73 

With tlie same spirit that its author writ ; 

Survey the whole, nor seek slight faults to find 235 

Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind ; 

Nor lose, for that malignant dull delight, 

The gen'rous pleasure to be charmed with wit. 

But in such lays as neither ebb nor flow, 

Correctly cold, and regularly low, 240 

That, shunning faults, one quiet tenor keep ; 

We cannot blame indeed — but we may sleep. 

In wit, as nature, what affects our hearts 

Is not th' exactness of peculiar 23arts ; 

' T is not a lip, nor eye, we beauty call, 245 

But the joint force and full result of all. 

Thus, when we view some well-proportioned dome, 

(The world's just wonder, and even thine, O Rome ! ) 

No single parts unequally surprise, 

All comes united to th' admiring eyes : 250 

No monstrous height, or breadth, or length appear ; 

The whole at once is bold and regular. 

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, 
Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be. 
In ev'ry work regard the writer's end, 255 

Since none can compass more than they intend ; 
And if the means be just, the conduct true, 
Applause, in spite of trivial faults, is due. 
As men of breeding, sometimes men of wit, 
T' avoid great errors, must the less commit : 260 

Neglect the rules each verbal critic lays. 
For not to know some trifles is a praise. 
Most critics, fond of some subservient art. 
Still make the whole depend upon a part : 
They talk of principles, but notions prize, 265 

And all to one loved folly sacrifice. 

Once on a time. La Mancha's knight, they say, 
A certain bard encount'ring on the way. 



74 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Discoursed in terms as just, with looks as sage, 

As e'er could Dennis of the Grecian stage ; 270 

Concluding all were desp'rate sots and fools, 

Who durst depart from Aristotle's rules. 

Our author, happy in a judge so nice. 

Produced his play, and begged the knight's advice ; 

Made him observe the subject, and the plot, 275 

The manners, passions, unities ; what not ? 

All which, exact to rule, were brought about. 

Were but a combat in the lists left out. 

" What ! leave the combat out ? " exclaims the knight ; 

" Yes, or we must renounce the Stagirite." 280 

" Not so, by Heav'n " (he answers in a rage), 

" Knights, squires, and steeds must enter on the stage." 

"So vast a throng the stage can ne'er contain." 

" Then build a new, or act it in a plain." 

Thus critics, of less judgment than caprice, 285 

Curious not knowing, not exact but nice. 
Form short ideas ; and offend in arts, 
(As most in manners) by a love to parts. 

Some to conceit alone their taste confine. 
And glitt'ring thoughts struck out at ev'ry line ; 290 

Pleased with a work where nothing 's just or fit ; 
One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit. 
Poets like painters, thus unskilled to trace 
The naked nature and the living grace. 
With gold and jewels cover ev'ry part, 295 

And hide with ornaments their want of art. 
True wit is Nature to advantage dressed, 
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed ; 
Something, whose truth convinced at sight we find. 
That gives us back the image of our mind. 300 

As shades more sweetly recommend the light. 
So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit. 
For works may have more wit than does them good, 



ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 75 

As bodies perish through excess of blood. 

Others for language all their care express, 305 

And value books, as women men, for dress : 
Their praise is still, — the style is excellent : 
The sense they humbly take upon content. 
Words are like leaves ; and where they most abound 
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found : 310 

False eloquence, like the prismatic glass, 
Its gaudy colors spreads on ev'ry place ; 
The face of Nature we no more survey, 
All glares alike, without distinction gay : 
But true expression, like th' unchanging sun, 315 

Clears and improves whate'er it shines upon. 
It gilds all objects, but it alters none. 
Expression is the dress of thought, and still 
Appears more decent, as more suitable ; 
A vile conceit in pompous words expressed 320 

Is like a clown in regal purple dressed : 
For diff'rent styles with diff'rent subjects sort. 
As sev'ral garbs with country, town, and court. 
Some by old words to fame have made pretence. 
Ancients in phrase, mere moderns in their sense ; 
Such labored nothings, in so strange a style, 
Amaze th' unlearned, and make the learned smile. 
Unlucky, as Fungoso in the play, 
These sparks with awkward vanity display 
What the fine gentleman wore yesterday ; 
And but so mimic ancient wits at best, 
As apes our grandsires in their doublets drest. 
In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold ; 
Alike fantastic, if too new, or old : 
Be not the first by whom the new are tried. 
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside. 

But most by numbers judge a poet's song ; 
And smooth or rough, with them is right or wrong 



325 



330 



335 



76 ALEXANDER POPE. 

In the bright Muse, though thousand charms conspire, 

Her voice is all these tuneful fools admire ; 340 

Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear, 

Not mend their minds ; as some to church repair. 

Not for the doctrine, but the music there. 

These equal syllables alone require. 

Though oft the ear the open vowels tire ; 345 

While expletives their feeble aid do join ; 

And ten low words oft creep in one dull line ; 

While they ring round the same unvaried chimes. 

With sure returns of still expected rhymes ; 

Where'er you find " the cooling western breeze," 350 

In the next line, it " whispers through the trees " : 

If crystal streams " with pleasing murmurs creep," 

The reader 's threatened (not in vain) with " sleep " : 

Then, at the last and only couplet fraught 

With some unmeaning thing they call a thought, 355 

A needless Alexandrine ends the song 

That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. 

Leave such to tune their own dull rhymes, and know 

What 's roundly smooth or languishingly slow ; 

And praise the easy vigor of a line, 360 

Where Denham's strength and Waller's sweetness join. 

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, 

As those move easiest who have learned to dance. 

' T is not enough no harshness gives oifence, 

The sound must seem an echo to the sense : 365 

Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows, 

And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows ; 

But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, 

The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar : 

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, 370 

The line, too, labors, and the words move slow ; 

Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain. 

Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main. 



ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 77 

Hear how Tiraotheiis' varied lays surprise, 

And bid alternate passions fall and rise ! 375 

While, at each change, the son of Libyan Jove 

Now burns with glory, and then melts with love ; 

Now his fierce eyes with sparkling fury glow, 

Now sighs steal out, and tears begin to flow : 

Persians and Greeks like turns of Nature found, 380 

And the world's victor stood subdued by sound ! 

The pow'r of music all our hearts allow, 

And what Timotheus was, is Dryden now. 

Avoid extremes ; and shun the fault of such. 
Who still are pleased too little or too much. 385 

At ev'ry trifle scorn to take offence. 
That always shows great pride, or little sense ; 
Those heads, as stomachs, are not sure the best. 
Which nauseate all, and nothing can digest. 
Yet let not each gay turn thy rapture move ; 390 

For fools admire, but men of sense approve : 
As things seem large which we through mists descry, 
Dulness is ever apt to magnify. 

Some, foreign writers, some, our own despise ; 
The ancients only, or the moderns prize. 395 

Thus wit, like faith, by each man is applied 
To one small sect, and all are damned beside. 
Meanly they seek the blessing to confine, 
And force that sun but on a part to shine, 
Which not alone the southern wit sublimes, 400 

But ripens spirits in cold northern climes ; 
Which from the first has shone on ages past, 
Enlights the present, and shall warm the last ; 
Though each may feel increases and decays. 
And see now clearer and now darker days. 405 

Regard not then if wit be old or new. 
But blame the false, and value still the true. 

Some ne'er advance a judgment of their own 



78 ALEXANDER POPE. 

But catch the spreading notion of the town : 

They reason and conclude by precedent, 410 

And own stale nonsense which they ne'er invent. 

Some judge of authors' names, not works, and then 

Nor praise nor blame the writings, but the men. 

Of all this servile herd the worst is he 

That in proud dulness joins with quality ; 415 

A constant critic at the great man's board, 

To fetch and carry nonsense for my lord. 

What woeful stuff this madrigal would be. 

In some starved hackney sonneteer, or me ! 

But let a lord once own the happy lines, 420 

How the wit brightens ! how the style refines ! 

Before his sacred name flies ev'ry fault. 

And each exalted stanza teems with thought ! 

The vulgar thus through imitation err, 
As oft the learned by being singular ; 425 

So much they scorn the crowd, that if the throng 
By chance go right, they purposely go wrong ; 
So schismatics the plain believers quit. 
And are but damned for having too much wit. 
Some praise at morning what they blame at night ; 430 
But always think the last opinion right. 
A Muse by these is like a mistress used. 
This hour she 's idolized, the next abused ; 
While their Aveak heads like towns unfortified, 
'Twixt sense and nonsense daily change their side. 435 
Ask them the cause ; they 're wiser still, they say ; 
And still to-morrow 's wiser than to-day. 
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow ; 
Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so. 
Once school-divines this zealous isle o'erspread ; 440 

Who knew most sentences, was deepest read ; 
Faith, gospel, all, seemed made to be disputed, 
And none has sense enough to be confuted : 



ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 79 

Scotists and Thomists, now, in peace remain 

Amidst their kindred cobwebs in Duck-lane. 445 

If Faith itself has diff'rent dresses worn, 

What wonder modes in wit should take their turn ? 

Oft, leaving what is natural and fit, 

The current folh^ proves the ready wit, 

And authors think their reputation safe, 450 

Which lives as long as fools are pleased to laugh. 

Some valuing those of their own side or mind. 
Still make themselves the measure of mankind : 
Fondly we think we honor merit then, 
When we but praise ourselves in other men. 455 

Parties in wit attend on those of State, 
And public faction doubles private hate. 
Pride, malice, folly, against Dryden rose, 
In various shapes of parsons, critics, beaux ; 
But sense survived, when merry jests were past, 460 

For rising merit will buoy up at last. 
Might he return, and bless once more our eyes. 
New Blackmores and new Milbourns must arise : 
Nay, should great Homer lift his awful head, 
Zoilus again would start up from the dead. 465 

Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue. 
But, like a shadow, proves the substance true : 
For envied wit, like Sol eclipsed, makes known 
Th' opposing body's grossness, not its own. 
When first that sun too pow'rful beams displays, 470 

It draws up vapors which obscure its rays ; 
But ev'n those clouds at last adorn its way. 
Reflect new glories, and augment the day. 

Be thou the first true merit to befriend ; 
His praise is lost, who stays till all commend. 475 

Short is the date, alas, of modern rhymes, 
And 't is but just to let them live betimes. 
No longer now that golden age appears, 



80 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Wheu patriarch-wits survived a thousand years : 

Now length of fame (our second life) is lost, 480 

And bare threescore is all ev'n that can boast ; 

Our sons their fathers' failing language see, 

And such as Chaucer is shall Dryden be. 

So, when the faithful pencil has designed 

Some bright idea of the master's mind, 485 

Where a new world leaps out at his command. 

And ready Nature waits upon his hand ; 

When the ripe colors soften and unite. 

And sweetly melt into just shade and light ; 

When mellowing years their full perfection give, 490 

And each bold figure just begins to live, 

Tlie treach'rous colors the fair art betray. 

And all the bright creation fades away ! 

Unhappy wit, like most mistaken things. 
Atones not for that envy which it brings. 495 

In youth alone its empty praise we boast. 
But soon the short-lived vanity is lost ; 
Like some fair flow'r the early spring supplies, 
That gaily blooms, but ev'n in blooming dies. 
What is this wit, which must our cares employ ? 500 

The owner's wife, that other men enjoy ; 
Then most our trouble still when most admired, 
And still the more we give, the more required ; 
Whose fame with pains we guard, but lose with ease. 
Sure some to vex, but never all to please ; 505 

' T is what the vicious fear, the virtuous shun, 
By fools 't is hated, and by knaves undone ! 

If wit so much from ign'rance undergo. 
Ah, let not learning, too, commence its foe ! 
Of old, those met rewards who could excel, 510 

And such were praised who but endeavored well : 
Though triumphs were to gen'rals only due, 
Crowns were reserved to grace the soldiers too ! 



ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 81 

Now, they who reach Parnassus' lofty crown, 

Employ their pains to spurn some others down ; 515 

And while self-love each jealous writer rules, 

Contending wits become the sport of fools ; 

But still the worst with most regret commend. 

For each ill author is as bad a friend. 

To what base ends, and by what abject ways, 520 

Are mortals urged through sacred lust of praise ! 

Ah, ne'er so dire a thirst of glory boast, 

Nor in the critic let the man be lost. 

Good nature and good sense must ever join ; 

To err is human, to forgive, divine. 525 

But if in noble minds some dregs remain 
Not yet purged off, of spleen and sour disdain ; 
Discharge that rage on more provoking crimes, 
Nor fear a dearth in these flagitious times. 
No pardon vile obscenity should find, 530 

Though wit and art conspire to move your mind ; 
But dulness with obscenity must prove 
As shameful sure as impotence in love. 
In the fat age of pleasure, wealth, and ease. 
Sprung the rank weed, and thrived with large in- 
crease ; ^^^ 
When love was all an easy monarch's care ; 
Seldom at council, never in a war : 
Jilts ruled the state, and statesmen farces writ : 
Nay, wits had pensions, and young lords had wit. 
The fair sat panting at a courtier's play, 540 
And not a mask went unimproved away : 
The modest fan was lifted up no more. 
And virgins smiled at what they blushed before. 
The following license of a foreign reign 
Did all the dregs of bold Socinus drain ; 545 
Then unbelieving priests reformed the nation, 
And taught more })leasant methods of salvation ; 



82 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Where Heav'n's free subjects might their rights dis- 
pute, 
Lest God Himself should seem too absolute ; 
Pulpits their sacred satire learned to spare, 550 

And vice admired to find a flatterer there ! 
Encouraged thus, wit's Titans braved the skies. 
And the press groaned with licensed blasphemies. 
These monsters, critics ! with your darts engage, 
Here point your thunder, and exhaust your rage ! 555 

Yet shun their fault, who, scandalously nice. 
Will needs mistake an author into vice ; 
All seems infected that th' infected spy, 
As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye. 

III. 

Learn then what morals critics ought to show, 560 

For ' t is but half a judge's task to know. 
'T is not enough, taste, judgment, learning, join ; 
In all you speak, let truth and candor shine : 
That not alone what to your sense is due 
All may allow ; but seek your friendship too, ^ 565 

/ Be silent always when you doubt your sense ; \ 
And speak, though sure, with seeming diffidence!: 
Some positive, persisting fops we know, 
Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so ; 
But you, with pleasure, own your errors past, 570 

And make each day a critic on the last. 

' T is not enough, your counsel still be true ; 
Blunt truth more mischief than nice falsehoods do ; 
Men must be taught as if you taught them not, 
And things unknown proposed as things forgot. 575 

Without good breeding, truth is disapproved ; 
That only makes superior sense beloved. 

Be niggards of advice on no pretence, 
For the worst avarice is that of sense. 



ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 83 

With mean complacence ne'er betray your trust, 580 

Nor be so civil as to prove unjust. 
Fear not the anger of the wise to raise ; 
Those best can bear reproof who merit praise. 

' T were well might critics still this freedom take, 
But Appius reddens at each word you speak, 585 

And stares, tremendous, with a threat'ning eye. 
Like some fierce tyrant in old tapestry. 
Fear most to tax an honorable fool. 
Whose right it is, uncensured, to be dull ; 
Such, without wit, are poets when they please, 500 

As without learning they can take degrees. 
Leave dang'rous truths to unsuccessful satires. 
And flattery to fulsome dedicators. 
Whom, when they praise, the world believes no more 
Than when they promise to ^ive scribbling o'er. 595 

' T is best sometimes your censure to restrain, 
i^And charitably let the dull be vain : 
Your silence there is better than your spite. 
For who can rail so long as they can write ? 
Still humming on, their drowsy course they keep, 600 

And lashed so long, like tops, are lashed asleep ; 
False steps but help them to renew the race, 
As, after stumbling, jades will mend their pace. 
What crowds of these impenitently bold, 
In sounds and jingling syllables grown old, 605 

Still run on poets, in a raging vein, 
Ev'n to the dregs and squeezings of the brain, 
Strain out the last dull droppings of their sense. 
And rhyme with all the rage of impotence. 

Such shameless bards we have ; and yet ' t is true, 610 
There are as mad abandoned critics too. 
The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, 
With loads of learned lumber in his head, 
With his own tongue still edifies his ears. 



84 ALEXANDER POPE. 

And always list'ning to himself appears. 615 

All books he reads, and all he reads assails, 

From Dryden's fables down to Durfey's tales. 

With him, most authors steal their works, or buy ; 

Garth did not write his own Dispensary. 

Name a new play, and he 's the poet's friend, 620 

Nay, showed his faults — but when would poets mend ? 

No place so sacred from such fops is barred, 

Nor is Paul's church more safe than Paul's churchyard : 

Nay, fly to altars ; there they '11 talk you dead : 

For fools rush in where angels fear to tread. 625 

Distrustful sense with modest caution speaks. 

It still looks home, and short excursions makes ; 

But rattling nonsense in full volleys breaks. 

And never shocked, and never turned aside, 

Bursts out, resistless, with a thund'ring tide. 630 

But, where 's the man who counsel can bestow. 
Still pleased to teach, and yet not proud to know ? 
Unbiassed, or by favor, or by spite ; 
Not dully prepossessed, nor blindly right : 
Though learned, well - bred ; and though well - bred, 
sincere, 635 

Modestly bold, and humanly severe : 
Who to a friend his faults can freely show, 
And gladly praise the merit of a foe ? 
Blest with a taste exact, yet unconfined ; 
A knowledge both of books and human kind : 640 

Gen'rous converse ; a soul exempt from pride ; 
And love to praise, with reason on his side ? 

Such once were critics ; such the happy few 
Athens and Rome in better ages knew. 
The mighty Stagirite first left the shore, 645 

Spread all his sails, and durst the deeps explore : 
He steered securely, and discovered far, 
Led by the light of the Mseonian star. 



ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 86 

Poets, a race long unconfined, and free, 
Still fond and proud of savage liberty, 650 

Received his laws ; and stood convinced ' t was fit, 
Who conquered Nature, should preside o'er wit. 

Horace still charms with graceful negligence. 
And without method talks us into sense, 
Will, like a friend, familiarly convey 655 

The truest notions in the easiest way. 
He who, supreme in judgment, as in wit, 
-Might boldly censure, as he boldly writ. 
Yet judged with coolness, though he sung with fire ; 
His precepts teach but what his works inspire. 660 

Our critics take a contrary extreme. 
They judge with fury, but they write with phlegm ; 
Nor suffers Horace more in wrong translations 
By wits, than critics in as wrong quotations. 

See Dionysius Homer's thoughts refine, 665 

And call new beauties forth from ev'ry line ! 

Fancy and art in gay Petronius please. 
The scholar's learning, with the courtier's ease. 

In grave Quintilian's copious work, we find 
The justest rules and clearest method joined : 670 

Thus useful arms in magazines we place, 
All ranged in order and disposed with grace, 
But less to please the eye than arm the hand. 
Still fit for use, and ready at command. 

Thee, bold Longinus ! all the Nine inspire, 675 

And bless their critic with a poet's fire. 
An ardent judge, who zealous in his trust. 
With warmth gives sentence, yet is always just ; 
Whose own example strengthens all his laws ; 
And is himself that great sublime he draws. 680 

Thus long succeeding critics justly reigned, 
License repressed, and useful laws ordained. 
Learning and Rome alike in empire grew ; 



86 ALEXANDER POPE. 

And arts still followed where her eagles flew ; 

From the same foes, at last, both felt their doom, 085 

And the same age saw learning fall, and Rome. 

With tyranny, then superstition joined, 

As that the body, this enslaved the mind ; 

Much was believed, but little understood. 

And to be dull was construed to be good ; 690 

A second deluge learning thus o'er-run. 

And the monks finished what the Goths begun. 

At length Erasmus — that great injured name, 
(The glory of the priesthood, and the shame !) 
Stemmed the wild torrent of a barb'rous age, 695 

And drove those holy Vandals off the stage. 

But see ! Each muse, in Leo's golden days, 
Starts from her trance, and trims her withered bays, 
Rome's ancient genius, o'er its ruins spread, 
Shakes off the dust, and rears his rev' rend head. 700 

Then sculpture and her sister-arts revive ; 
Stones leajjed to form, and rocks began to live ; 
With sweeter notes each rising temple rung ; 
A Raphael painted and a Vida sung. 

Immortal Vida : on whose honored brow 705 

The poet's bays and critic's ivy grow : 
Cremona now shall ever boast thy name. 
As next in place to Mantua, next in fame ! 

But soon b}^ impious arms from Latium chased. 
Their ancient bounds the banished Muses passed ; 710 
Thence arts o'er all the northern world advance, 
But critic learning flourished most in France : 
The rules a nation, born to serve, obeys ; 
And Boileau still in right of Horace sways. 
But we, brave Britons, foreign laws despised, 715 

And kept unconquered, and uncivilized ; 
Fierce for the liberties of wit, and bold. 
We still defied the Romans, as of old. 



ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 87 

Yet some tliere were, among the sounder few 

Of those who less presumed, and better knew, 720 

Who durst assert the juster ancient cause. 

And here restored wit's fundamental laws. 

Such was the muse, whose rules and practice tell, 

*' Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well." 

Such was Roscommon, not more learned than good, 725 

With manners gen'rous as his noble blood ; 

To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known, 

And ev'ry author's merit but his own. 

Such late was Walsh — the muse's judge and friend, 

Who justly knew to blame or to commend ; 730 

To failings mild, but zealous for desert ; 

The clearest head and the sincerest heart. 

This humble praise, lamented shade ! receive, 

This praise at least a grateful muse may give ; 

The muse, whose early voice you taught to sing, 735 

Prescribed her heights, and pruned her tender wing, 

(Her guide now lost) no more attempts to rise. 

But in low numbers short excursions tries : 

Content, if hence th' unlearned their wants may view. 

The learned reflect on what before they knew : 740 

Careless of censure, nor too fond of fame ; 

Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame, 

Averse alike to flatter, or offend ; 

Not free from faults, nor yet too vain to mend. 



NOTES 

ON 

AN ESSAY ON MAN. 

Epistle I. 

Line 1. "Awake, my St. John/' Henry St. John, Viscount 
Bolingbroke (1678-1751). His career as a statesman and orator was 
brilhant and meteoric. He was a bitter partisan, a Tory of the 
Tories. He was a man of commanding presence, and faultless 
manners. His personality was magnetic. His power over some 
men was hypnotic, among them Pope. He has been called the 
English Alcibiades. His dissipated and graceless career greatly 
hampered his public influence. He possessed some literary ability. 
His principal works are The Idea of a Patriot King and Letters 
on the Study and Use of History. 

Line 13. " Shoot folly as it flies." Suggested by Dryden's hue, 
" and shoots their treasons as they fly" {Absalom and Achitophel, 
Part II). See also same work suggesting Hue 226. Pope was an 
ardent and reverent admirer of Dry den, and in many poems be- 
trays the influence of the great poet, " the least inspired and the 
most classical."— Taine, Bk. Ill, chap. 7. 

Line 16. "But vindicate the ways of God to man." See 
Milton's Paradise Lost, Bk. I, line 22. 

Line 32. "Can a part contain the whole?" suggests the Pla- 
tonism, " The part is created for the sake of the whole, and not 
the whole for the sake of the part." 

Line 33. " Is the great chain? " alludes to the golden chain by 
which Homer tells us the world was sustained by Jove. 

Line 41. " Yonder argent fields above." " Argent "; shining, 
silvery. 

" Pardon me, airy planet, that I prize 
One thought beyond thine argent luxuries." 

Keats, Endymion, III. 

Line 45. " Where all must full or not coherent be " ; i. e., there 
can be no break, for if there be one, cohesion is destroyed. 

89 



90 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Line 53. " Though labored on with pain." From Bolingbroke, 
Fragments, 43 and 63. 

Line 64. " And now Egypt's god." Among the Egyptians the 
ox w^as worshipped under the title of Apis. 

Line 88. " Or a sparrow fall." St. Matt. 10 : 29. 

Line 98. " Expatiates," to move at will, to wander without re- 
straint. See Pope's use of the same word in his Windsor Forest, I, 
254 : ' ' Bids his free soul expatiate in the skies. " 

Lines 99-112. "To my feeling, one of the most beautiful pas- 
sages in the whole poem." — J. R. Lowell, Literary Essays, IV, 40. 

Line 144. " Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?" 
Recalling the awful catastrophe of Lisbon and Scilla, and more 
recently the island of Ischia and of Java. 

Line 156. " Why then a Borgia?" Caesar Borgia, the son of 
Pope Alexander VI, cardinal and soldier. Infamous in character, 
maliciously cruel to his enemies. " Catiline." Roman conspirator 
against his country. 

Line 160. ''Or turns young Amnion loose." Young Ammon, 
Alexander the Great, saluted as Jupiter Ammon. 

Line 174. " Little less than angel." Ps. 8 : 9. 

Line 182. " Here with degrees of swiftness, there of force." " It 
is a certain axiom in the anatomy of creatures, that in proportion 
as they are formed for strength, their swiftness is lessened ; or as 
they are formed for swiftness, their strength is abated." — Pope. 

Line 193. "Why has not man a microscopic eye?" A vivid 
expression, taken from Locke's Essay on the Human Understand- 
ing (Bk. II, chap. 3, sec. 12), a work which shapes the argument 
of Pope. 

Line 213. " The manner of the lions hunting their prey in the 
deserts of Africa is this : at their first going out in the night-time 
they set up a loud roar, and then listen to the noise made by the 
beasts in their flight, x^ursuing them by the ear, and not by 
the nostril. It is probable the story of the jackal's hunting for the 
lion was occasioned by observation of this defect of scent in that 
terrible animal." — Pope. 

Line 241. " On superior pow'rs," reminds the reader of Thom- 
son's Seasons, " Summer." 

Line 260. " Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head?" Taken 
from St. Paul (1 Cor. 12 : 15-21). 

Line 265. " Just as absurd to mourn the tasks or pains." " See 
the Prosecution and Application of this in Epistle IV." — Pope. 



NOTES ON AN ESSAY ON MAN. 91 

Line 288, " Or in the natal, or the mortal hour," reminds one 
of Goethe's remark in childhood : " God knows very well that an 
immortal soul can receive no injury from a moital accident." — 
Ward. 

Line 294. " Whatever is, is right." See Dryden's (Edixms, 
Act IH, Scene 1. 

Epistle H. 

Line 5. " With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side," etc. 
" Sceptic," one of the names chosen by the followers of Pyrrhon, 
whose philosophy was negative, while Stoics proclaimed the posi- 
tive philosophy of the full performance of duty and the pursuit of 
virtue. 

Line 17. "In endless error hurled." "To hurl signifies not 
simply to cast, but to cast backward and forward, and is taken 
from the rural game called hurling." — Warburton. 

Line 27. " As eastern priests," etc., for example, the priests of 
the Sun-God Baal. 

Lines 29, 30. " Go, teach Eternal Wisdom," etc. The conclusion 
of all that has been said from line 18. 

Line 46. " Learning's luxury, or idleness," refers to the inflated 
passion of the times, making great pretences to learning and 
cultivating ease, luxurj^, and idleness. 

Line 50. "Of all our vices have created arts." Even out of 
vices have arts been produced, as for example Gastronomy and 
Epicureanism. 

Line 59. " Acts," for actuates. 

Line 74. " Reason, the future and the consequence." Reason 
here stands between arguments from the past and the ethical 
experiences of the future. 

Lines 81-92. "Let subtle schoolmen," etc. A fine analysis 
of the relation of self-love to reason. They are not mutually 
antagonistic, but interrelated and supplementary, the one of the 
other. Both tend to happiness ; the first quickly appropriates 
what is for its good, the second scrutinizes and weighs evidence 
as to permanent values. 

Line 96. " Reason bids us for our own provide." See St. 
Paul's words in 1 Tim. 5 : 8. 

Line 98. " List," i.e., enlist or range themselves. 

Line 101, "In lazy apathy let Stoics boast." Warton objects 
to this line on the ground that Stoicism does not consist in total 



92 ALEXANDER POPE. 

insensibility with respect to feeling, but a rational freedom from 
irrational and excessive agitations of the soul. 

Line 108. " Card," i.e., the compass. 

Line 200. " In Decius charms, in Curfcius is divine." Decius, 
an heroic Roman Consul of Plebeian rank, killed in the battle of 
Vesuvius, 340 B.C. Legend has it that a chasm was opened by an 
earthquake in the Roman Forum (362 B.C.). It could be closed 
only by the sacrifice of Rome's most costly treasure. Marcus 
Curtius, affirming that the state possessed no greater treasure 
than a brave citizen, leaped into the chasm, mounted and full- 
armored. Then the chasm closed. 

Line 204. "The God within the mind." From Plato's lofty 
conception of conscience. 

Line 218. " As, to be hated, needs but to be seen." Compare 
Dryden's thought : 

" For truth has such a face and such a mien. 
As to be loved needs only to be seen." 

The Hind and the Panther, line 33. 

Line 223. " The Orcades." The Orkney Islands at the extreme 
north of Scotland. 

Line 224. " Zembla." Nova Zembla, islands north of Russia. 

Line 269. " The starving chemist," etc., alludes to the passionate 
search of the alchemist for the philosopher's stone. 

Epistle III. 

Line 46. "A pampered goose," suggested by Pierre Charron, 
De la Sag esse. 

Line 50. " Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole." Wit 
used for intellect, by which man rules the whole animal kingdom. 

Line 56. " Philomela." Daughter of Pandion in Greek legend. 
She was metamorphosed into a nightingale. 

Line 68. "Than favored man," etc. Several of the ancients, 
and many of the orientals since, esteemed those who were 
struck by lightning as sacred persons and the particular favorites 
of Heaven. 

Line 104. " Demoivre." Trisyllabic to preserve the meter. 
The distinguished French mathematician, born at Vitry, in 
Champagne, 1667, died in London, 1754. The allusion in the poem 
is to his fame in trigonometry. He was a friend of Newton. 



NOTES ON AN ESSAY ON MAN. V)3 

Line 152. " Man walked with beast, joint tenant of the shade." 
''Plato had said from old tradition, that, during the Golden Age 
and under the reign of Saturn, the primitive language then in use 
was common to man and beast. . . . The naturalists understood 
the tradition to signify that in the first ages man used inarticulate 
sounds, like beasts, to express their wants and sensations ; and 
that it was by slow degrees they came to the use of speech." 
— War burton. 

Line 168. "And turned on man a fiercer savage, Man" : a 
thought which Robert Burns has made prominent : 

"Man's inhumanity to man 
Makes countless thousands mourn." 

Line 173. ' ' Learn from the birds," etc. Taken from Lord Bacon's 
Advancement of Lemming, Bk. II. 

Line 174. "Learn from the beasts," etc. Pliny {NaflHist., 
L. viii., c. 27) gives several instances where animals use herbs for 
their medicinal effects. 

Line 177. "Learn of the little nautilus to sail." Appian de- 
scribes this fish in the following manner: " They swim on the 
surface of the sea, on the back of their shells, which exactly 
resemble the hulk of a ship : they raise two feet like masts, and 
extend a membrane between, wiiich serves as a sail ; the other two 
feet they employ as oars at the side. They are usually seen in the 
Mediterranean." — Pope. See another feature of this remarkable 
shell-fish in O. W. Holmes's exquisite poem : The Chambered 
Nautilus. 

Line 211. " 'T was Virtue only," etc. Like Aristotle {Polit, V, 
10, 3). Pope places the origin of kingship in virtue. 

Line 231. " Ere wit oblique," etc. Referring to the separation 
of the beam of light into its prismatic colors. 

Line 242. " Th' enormous faith of many made for one." The 
monstrous heresy that many are to serve one, — " the mania 
of the Cgesars." Aristotle makes this the basis of his distinction 
between a king and a tyrant. The first regards himself made for 
the people, the second the people made for him. 

Line 265. "Then first the Flamen tasted living food.'" The 
sacrifice of animals on the altar. 

Line 266. " Next his grim idol smeared with human blood." 
See Milton's Paradise Lost, Bk. I, v. 392 : 



94 ALEXANDER POPE. 

'' First Molock, horrid king, besmear d u'ith blood 
Of human sacrifice and parents' tears." 

Line 306. "He can't be wrong whose Hfe is in the right." 
Cowley, on the death of Crashaw, had written : 

"His faith, perhaps, in some nice tenets might 
Be wrong : his hfe, I 'm sure, was in the riglit." 

Line 314. " Yet make at once their circle round the sun." At 
once, i.e., at one and the same time. 

Line 315. "Act the soul." As in Epis. H., line 59, actuate. 

Epistle IV. 

Line 6. "Overlooked, seen double." "O'erlooked" by those 
who place happiness in anything exclusive of virtue ; ' ' seen 
double " "by those who admit anything else to have a share with 
virtue in procuring happiness : these being the two general mis- 
takes that this epistle is employed in confuting." — Warburton. 

Line 9. " Shine." Used substantively. So Whittier : 

" Their vales in misty shadows deep. 
Their rugged peaks in shine.'' 

The Hint 02). 

Line 15. "Sincere." Pure, unalloyed. 

Lines 21-26. In these lines the poet refers to the different pliilo- 
sophic, ethical, and social sects, the Cyrenaic, the Democritic, 
the Epicurean, the Stoic, the Protagorean, the Sceptic. 

Line 66. "Content." So Shakespeare uses the word : "Poor 
and content is rich and rich enough." — Othello, Act III, Sc. 1. 

Line 74. "Skies." Alluding to attempt of Titans to scale 
Olympus. 

Line 94. " Bliss to vice, to virtue woe," i.e., the false doctrine 
that bliss is the product of vice, woe of virtue. 

Line'99. "See Falkland dies." Lucius Gary, Lord Falkland, 
fell fighting under the imperial standard in the battle of New- 
bury, 1643. Immortalized by Clarendon. 

Line 100. " God-like Turenne." Henry, Vicomte de Turenne, 
Marshal of France. Killed by a cannon ball at Sasbach in 1675. 

Line 101. "See Sidney bleeds." Sir Philip Sidney, shot at 
Zutphen, 1586, and died a few days later. Author of the Arcadia. 

Line 104. "Lamented Digby." The Hon. Robert Digby, third 
son of Lord Digby, died 1724. See Pope's Epitajjhs, VII. 



NOTES ON AN ESSAY ON MAN. 95 

Line 107. "Marseilles' good bishop." M. de Belsance, the 
heroic Bishop of Marseilles. " In the plague of that city in the 
year 1720, he distinguished himself by his zeal and activity, being 
the pastor, the physician, and the magistrate of his flock, whilst 
that horrid calamity prevailed."— Warton. 

Line ^110. " A parent to the poor and me." The mother of the 
poet, Edith Pope, a woman of strong character and sweetness of 
spirit, died the year this poem was finished, 1733. 

Line 123. " Shall burning ^tna, if a sage requires ! " This is 
an allusion to the two noted scientists, Empedocles and Pliny, 
who perished while exploring the volcanic phenomena of ^tna 
and Vesuvius. 

Line 126. "Oh, blameless Bethel ! " A friend of Pope's living in 
Yorkshire. 

Line 130. " Chartres' head." F. Chartres, a man of infamous 
character. See Pope's 3Iora/ Essays, with the author's own note, 
III, 20. 

Line 137. "Calvin." Protestant reformer and theologian 
(1509-1564). 

Line 148. " Sighed to lose a day." Alluding to the famous ex- 
clamation of Titus, on remembering that he had rendered no 
one any help, " I have lost a day." 

Line 153. "Tempts the main." The sea. 

" I cannot, 'twixt the heaven and the mam, 
Descry a sail." 

Shakespeare, Othello, II, 1, 3. 

Line 177. " Go, like the Indian." Alluding to Epis. I, 99. 

Line 204. " Prunella." Woolen fabric out of which clergy- 
men's gowns were made. 

Line 220. "Macedonia's madman," Alexander the Great. 
" Swede." Charles XII. of Sweden. 

Line 235. "Good Aurehus." Marcus Aurehus (a.d. 121 to 
180), called " The Philosopher" on account of his ardent devotion 
to the noblest arts. He was the highest type of a noble Roman. 

Line 236. As Socrates died from the effects of hemlock. War- 
ton thinks the word " bleed " is misapphed. 

Line 240. " TuUy's." Marcus Tullius Cicero. 

Line 244. "Eugene living." Prince Eugene of Savoy, com- 
mander of the royal forces in the war of the Spanish Succession. 

Line 257. " Marcellus exiled feels." One of Caesar's bitterest 



96 ALEXANDER POPE. 

enemies. After the battle of Pharsalia, he fled to Mytilene. 
Assassinated at Athens on his way to Rome. 

Line 278. " Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy." Sir William Yonge, a 
supporter of Sir Robert Walpole. 

Line 280. "Gripus." Gripe is a character in Vanbrugh's Con- 
federacy. His wife spends his money. 

Line 281. "Bacon." Francis Bacon, the talented and accom- 
plished English philosopher, jurist, aivl statesman. While in the 
administration of justice (1621) he was tried for bribery. Con- 
viction and confession followed. 

Line 283. "The whistling of a name." Compare Cowley, 
" Charmed with the foolish whistling of a name." See also 
Vergil Georgics, Bk. II, line 72. 

Line 284. " Cromwell." Note the honors conferred upon the 
name of Oliver Cromwell in the year 1899, on the three hundredth 
anniversary of his birth. 

Line 312. " Without the fall," i.e., without any inclination. 

Line 332. " Looks through Nature up to Nature's God," is 
from Bolingbroke's letters to Pope : " One follows nature and 
nature's God." 

Line 341. " Hope leads from goal to goal," etc. Read in this con 
nection Thomas Campbell's exquisite poem. Pleasures of Hope. 

Line 364. " Stirs the peaceful lake." Taken from the simile of 
the lake in Chaucer's House of Fame, Bk. II, line 280 If. 



NOTES 

ON 

AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 

Part I. 

Line 9. " T is with our judgments as our watches," etc. Evi- 
dently suggestecf by Sir John Suckhng's, 

'' But, as when an authentic watch is shown, 
Each man winds up and rectifies his own, 
So in our very judgments." 

Epilogue to Aglaura. 

Line 16. " And censure freely who have written well." See 
Matthew Arnold's essay on the "Function of Criticism at the 
Present Time," where the relation between the Creative and the 
Critical Art is distinctly pointed out. 

Line 17. " Authors are partial to their wit." It is claimed that 
the word "wit" is used in seven different senses in this essay. 
Here it means genius, creative talent. 

Line 25. " So by false learning is good sense defaced . " " Sound 
judgment without mental training accomplishes more than men- 
tal training without sound judgment." — Translated from Quin- 
tilian. Quoted by Pope in the original Latin. 

Line 34. " If Msevius scribble," etc. An inferior Roman 
poet. 

Line 80. " Soine, to whom Heav'n in wit has been profuse." 
As a variation from this Pope wrote : 

There are whom Heav'n has blest with store of wit. 
Yet want as much again to manage it." 

Line 98. " Just precepts thus from great examples giv'n." For 
not by the setting forth of (grammatical) treatises was it brought 
about that we invented subject-matter, but all things w-ere talked 
of before thej^ were formally taught ; presently, writers noted and 
arranged and then published them." — From Quintilian. Quoted 
by Pope in Latin. 

7 

97 



98 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Line 109. " Doctor's bills." — Prescriptions. 

Line 129. " Mantuan Muse." Vergil, whose home was Mantua, 
near which he was born. 

Line 130. " Young Maro." The family name of Vergil, 

Line 131. " A work t' outlast immortal Rome designed," etc. 
Vergil, Eclogue VI. " It is a tradition preserved by Servius, that 
Vergil began with writing a poem of the Alban and Roman affairs ; 
which he found above his years, and descended first to imitate 
Theocritus on rural subjects, and afterwards to copy Homer in 
heroic poetry." — Pope. 

Line 138. " The Stagirite." Aristotle, born in Stagira, Chalcid- 
ice, 384 B.C., died 322 B.C. The most distinguished of Greek 
philosophers. Author of many works on logic and metaphysics. 
Tutor of Alexander the Great. 

Line 150. " Pegasus." In ancient mythology a winged horse, 
sprung from the blood of Medusa when slain by Perseus. 

Line 180. " Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream." " Mod- 
estly and witli becoming discretion ought people to pass judgment 
concerning so great genius, lest (as occurs in most cases) they 
condemn something which they do not understand. And if it is 
necessary to err in either direction I should prefer to please their 
readers in all things than to displease them in many." — Transla- 
tion of Quintilian's words. Pope's quotation of Latin note. 

Line 183. "Secure from flames, from envy's fiercer rage." 
" The poet here alludes to four great causes of the ravages among 
ancient writings, viz. : the destruction of tlie Alexandrian and 
Palatine libraries by fire ; the fiercer rage of Zoilus and Maevius 
and their followers against wit : the irruption of the barbarians 
into the empire ; and the long reign of ignorance and superstition 
in the cloisters." — Warburton. 

Part II. 

Line 206. " In large recruits," i. e., in abundant supply. 

Line 216. " Pierian spring." Pieria was a legendary region in 
the northern part of Thessaly. Here legend says Orpheus and the 
Muses were born. 

Line 218. " And drinking largely sobers us again." Compare 
Bacon's Essay XVI, "Atheism " : "A little philosophy inclineth a 
man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's 
minds about to religion." 



NOTES ON AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 99 

Line 248. " The workVs just wonder." Supposed to be the 
Pantheon or St. Peter's at Rome. 

Line 266. ' ' Once on a time, La Mancha's knight," etc. Taken 
from a spurious (second) part of Don Quixote ; translated and re- 
modelled by Le Sage. 

Lina270. "Dennis." John Dennis, literary critic; incurred 
Pope's enmity and held up to scathing ridicule in the Dunciad. 

Line 308. " Take upon content," i. e., upon trust, common in 
Pope's time. 

Line 328. " Unlucky, as Fungoso." See Ben Jonson's Every 

Man in His Humor. 

Line 361. " Denham." Sir John Denham (1615-1668). "Wal- 
ler," Edmund Waller (1605-1687). Both EngUsh poets. 

Line 372. " When swift Camilla scours the plain." Virgin 
warrior, queen of the Volscians. Vergil's ^neid. 

Line 374. " Timotheus' varied lays surprise." See "Alexan- 
der's Feast, or the Power of Music," ode by Dryden. 

Line 383. Dryden was Pope's literary model, and the latter often 
said that Drvden had done much for the improvement of the art 
of versification. He ardently admired Dryden. The only time he 
saw him was at Wills' Coffee-house in 1699, when he was a boy 
of twelve years, and the great poet aged and infirm. Dryden 
died the year after. 

Line 391 . " For fools admire." ' ' It need hardly be pomted out 
that the nil admirari desiderated by Horace includes moral self- 
restraint as well as intellectual equanimity."— Ward. 

Line 420. " Let a lord once own the happy lines." "You 
ought not to write verses," said George IL, who had little taste, to 
Lord Hervey, "'tis beneath your rank. Leave such work to 
Uttle Mr. Pope : it is his trade."— War ton. 

Line 441. "Who knew most sentences." Peter Lombard, an 
Italian theologian, called " Master of the Sentences," from a work 
he compiled. Book of Sentences, selections from the theological 
writings of the Church Fathers. 

Line 444. The "Scotists" were the disciples of Duns Scotus 
(1265-1308), scholastic. The ' ' Thomists " were disciples of Thomas 
Aquinas (1227-1274), theologian. These men were founders of 
rival sects. 

Line 445. "Duck-lane." A place near Smithfield, London, 
where old and second-hand books were sold. 
Line 459. "Parsons, critics." The parson referred to was 



100 ALEXANDER POPE. 

Jeremy Collier, a clergyman of the Church of England, who 
vigorousl}'^ attacked the coarseness of the stage. ' ' Critics," — allu- 
sion to the Duke of Buckingham, who ridiculed Dryden's occa- 
sional inflated style in his plays. 

Line 463. Sir Richard Blackmore (1650-1729), English physician, 
poet, and prose writer. Satirizes Dryden. Luke Milbourn, a 
clergyman, " the fairest of critics" — Pope. 

Line 465. "Zoilus," a Greek rhetorician, and severe critic of 
Homer. 

Line 482. " Our sons their fathers' failing language see." An 
English critic has said that in fifty years the works of Charles 
Dickens will not be understood. 

Line 536. " An easy monarch's care." Charles II. 

Line 538. "Statesmen farces writ." Refers to the Duke of 
Buckingham, who wrote The Rehearsal. 

Line 541. " Not a mask." Allusion to the custom of women 
wearing masks at the play. 

Line 544. " A foreign reign," Of William III. 

Line 545. " The author has omitted two lines which stood 
here, as containing a national reflection, which in his stricter 
judgment he could not but disapprove on any people whatever." 
— Pope. The cancelled couplet was : 

" Then first the Belgian morals Avere extolled, 
We their religion had, and they our gold." 

Line 546. " Priests reformed the nation." The Latitudinarian 
divines of the Low Church party. 

Part III. 

Lines 585, 586. "This picture was taken to himself by John 
Dennis, a furious old critic by profession, who, upon no other prov- 
ocation, wrote against this essay and its author, in a manner per- 
fectly lunatic ; for, as to the mention made of him in ver. 270, 
he took it as a compliment, and said it was treacherously meant 
to cause him to overlook this abuse of his person." — Pope. 

Line 591. "Degrees." Referring to the privilege granted to 
noblemen and their sons, to take the degree of M.A. after re- 
maining at the University two years. 

Line 617. " Durfey " (1650-1723). An English dramatist and 
humorous poet of inferior merit. 

Line 619. Garth. " A common slander at that time in preju- 
dice of that deserving author." — Pope. 



NOTES ON" An ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 101 

Line 628. '• Paul's church," etc. " Before the fire of London, 
St. Paul's churchyard was the headquarters of the booksellers, who 
have never wholly deserted it." — Ward. 

Line 625. " For fools rush in," etc. See Shakespeare's Richard 
III, Act I, Sc. 3. 

Line 648. " The Maeonian star." Myeonia, the ancient name of 
Lydia, Asia Minor. 

Line 651. " Stood convinced 't was fit." Aristotle wrote 
Natural History and Poetics. 

Line 665. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, circ. 30 B.C., Greek 
rhetorician and historian. 

Line 667. Petronius Arbiter, of the time of Nero, died 66 a.d., 
reputed author of the Satiricon. 

Line 669. Quintilian (35-95 A.D.), one of the most distinguished 
of Roman rhetoricians and critics. His Institutions of Oratory 
was admiringly studied by Pope. 

Line 675. Longinus (210-273 a.d.), noted Greek philosopher ; 
author of Treatise on the Sublime. 

Line 693. Erasmus (1465-1536). Famous classical and theo- 
logical scholar. He revived the learning of the Greeks in the 16th 
century. Was an ecclesiastical writer of note and a controver- 
sialist. 

Line 697. " Leo's golden days." The learned Leo X, Pope 
1513-1521. A liberal patron of literature and art. 

Line 704. '' A Vida sung." Vida, born at Cremona, in 1480, 
celebrated Italian critic and poet. Chief poem, Ar^t of Poetry. 

Line 709. *' By impious arms from Latium chased." Allusion 
to the sack of Rome by the Duke of Bourbon in 1527. 

Line 714. Boileau, famous French critic (1636-1711). His 
Art of Poetry, his masterpiece. 

Line 723. " Such was the muse, whose rules and practice tell." 
Reference to the great work of the Duke of Buckingham, Essay 
on Poetry. 

Line 725. Lord Roscommon (1633-1684). The learned author 
of Essay on Translated Verse. Intimate friend of Dryden. 

Line 729. William Walsh (1663-1709), a writer of ordinary 
merit, unduly praised by Pope, whose friendship for service 
rendered warped his judgment of the poet's powers. Of Walsh, 
Dr. Johnson saj^s, "he is known more by his familiarity with 
greater men, than by anything done or w^ritten by himself." 



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